One of the 61 protesters against Atlanta’s planned public safety training center is set to stand trial next week after making a speedy trial demand shortly after the RICO indictment was filed by the Georgia Attorney General’s Office.
Judge Kimberly Esmond Adams issued an order Tuesday setting the trial for Ayla King to start Dec. 11, at 9 a.m. King, who is represented by Suri Chadha Jimenez, faces one count of conspiracy to violate the state’s RICO Act.
Chadha Jimenez filed the speedy trial demand on behalf of King on Oct. 30. Under Georgia law, a jury has to be seated and sworn into service by the end of the speedy trial deadline. In Fulton County, that’s two terms of court, each of which are about two months long.
According to the indictment, King is accused of 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.”
The indictment mainly focuses on the Defend the Atlanta Forest group, describing it as an Atlanta-based organization that prosecutors say is an “anti-government, anti-police, and anti-corporate extremist organization.” The majority of those indicted face RICO charges, but others face additional charges of domestic terrorism, arson and money laundering.
Most are not from Georgia.
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
According to the indictment, the group’s purpose is to occupy parts or all of the 381 forested acres with the goal of halting training center construction. The forest is in DeKalb County, but owned by the city of Atlanta and leased to the Atlanta Police Foundation.
Last month, all defendants named in the indictment were arraigned. King’s bond was set at $15,000.
At the arraignment hearing, Deputy Attorney General John Fowler told Adams that the state had about 5 terabytes of discovery data for the case.
In her Tuesday ruling, Adams ordered lawyers to submit questions for jury selection no later than close of business on Thursday, as well as a proposed narrative synopsis of the charges in the indictment to be read during jury selection. The indictment is 109-pages long.
Adams also ordered counsel and parties to “refrain from any extra-judicial communications concerning the proceedings, including, but not specifically limited to, granting interviews, making or expressing opinions about the subject matter of these proceedings, posting, commenting or “liking” posts on social media; or, more generally, any other communication concerning the proceedings, the parties or the subject matter of the indictment.”
Just before Thanksgiving, Adams held a hearing regarding extending the deadline for defendants to file speedy trial demands, but did not issue a ruling.
Following that hearing, she heard arguments from defense attorneys about sealing the diary of Manuel “Tortuguita” Teran — an environmental activist fatally shot by police near the construction site in DeKalb County — after prosecutors filed a motion containing multiple pages of the diary in an attempt to introduce it as evidence against the 61 defendants named in the indictment.
In the hearing, which was closed to media, Adams ordered the diary to be sealed but did not ruled on whether the diary will be admitted for trial.
City officials and the Atlanta Police Foundation say the $90 million facility is key to police and firefighters getting first-rate training to protect citizens. Opponents argue the center will further militarize police, and worry about destruction of the urban forest in which it is being built.
Legal attempts to halt construction and to hold a referendum on the training center are ongoing.
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