Less than six months after the indictment was released, the first trial against protesters of Atlanta’s public safety training center gets underway Wednesday. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution will be in the courtroom.
Ayla King, who is from Massachusetts, is facing one count of violating the state’s RICO Act, after allegedly trespassing into the DeKalb County forest on March 5, 2023, by joining “an organized mob of individuals designed to overwhelm the police force in an attempt to occupy the DeKalb forest and cause property damage,” according to the indictment. King is the first defendant out of the 61 named in the indictment going to trial after filing a speedy trial demand.
The Georgia Attorney General’s Office is prosecuting the case and brought the indictment in Fulton County. The 61 defendants are charged with violating the state’s RICO Act, while some also face additional charges of domestic terrorism, arson and money laundering. Most are not from Georgia.
During pre-trial motions, Judge Kimberly Adams, who is presiding over the whole case, ruled to allow prosecutors to use “relevant portions” of the diary of Manuel “Tortuguita” Teran. Deputy Attorney General John Fowler said diary entries show Teran was part of the alleged conspiracy aiming at stopping the construction of the training center.
King’s trial is expected to last, at most, four weeks, with the state planning to call around 45 witnesses, the vast majority law enforcement. At Monday’s motions hearing, the state’s plea offer was revealed to be, 10 years to serve three years in prison. King declined the offer.
A jury was sworn over a two-day period before Christmas and it consists of a panel of 14, with 12 trial jurors and two alternates, including four Black women, three white women, three Black men, two white men, one Asian woman and one woman of another race.
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