New information hinted at Friday but not disclosed added a layer of intrigue to the ongoing stalemate between Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr and Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis over who should represent the state in two controversial police prosecutions.
“It’s a concern that exists only for our office,” said Willis’ attorney Kevin Armstrong, discussing, in the broadest of terms, a reason why the DA needed to be recused. Armstrong spoke at a hearing requested by the DA in hopes Carr would be forced to appoint a new prosecutor.
Instead, Fulton Magistrate Judge Todd Ashley sided with the attorney general, saying the cases still belong to the DA’s office — for now. But the legal dispute is far from over.
“The unrevealed information highly complicates the situation,” the judge said.
Those directly involved in the cases on both sides are eager for resolution.
“A decision needs to be made right away,” said attorney Jeff Brickman, who represents Atlanta police officer Ronald Claud, charged with misdemeanor criminal damage to property. “I don’t care who the prosecutor is. We gotta get this show on the road.”
Claud was one of six Atlanta officers charged after the arrests last May of college students Taniyah Pilgrim and Messiah Young, who were pulled from their vehicle and tased after police say they ignored their commands. Former DA Paul Howard brought the charges against Claud last June but was voted out of office three months later.
The case has been without a prosecutor ever since.
“There has been no one advocating for these victims,” said Young’s attorney, Mawuli Davis. “There are two people still dealing with this horrific event and they would like to move forward as well.”
Willis has also petitioned to be disqualified from prosecuting former Atlanta police officer Garrett Rolfe, who is charged with felony murder in the fatal shooting of Rayshard Brooks last June in a Wendy’s parking lot. Police video showed Brooks fought Rolfe and another officer on the scene, Devin Brosnan, as they tried to place him under arrest after administering a breathalyzer test. Brosnan faces one count of aggravated assault in addition to lesser charges.
Willis had cited her predecessor’s conduct in bringing those charges, now the subject of a state investigation, in her initial requests for recusal. Carr responded that the “matters are personal to your predecessor” and “do not pertain to your office.”
“She cannot handle this case. She has ethical obligations and she just can’t do it,” said Jeff Davis, the former executive director of the State Bar of Georgia and director of the state judicial watchdog agency.
The DA’s team was unsuccessful in convincing the judge that Carr acted beyond the scope of his duties when denying the recusal. The AG’s office declined an invitation to appear at the hearing.
Carr, according to an affidavit submitted by Davis, “has no authority to supplant his ethical conclusions for the person accountable for those decisions.”
“Given the unique circumstances of a district attorney’s announcement of recusal and an attorney general’s refusal to appoint a new prosecutor, it is my opinion that a question exists as to who represents the State of Georgia in these cases,” Davis wrote.
The court, he said, had an “ethical mandate” to enter an order “disqualifying the District Attorney and her office on the basis on her announced recusal and to further direct that the Attorney General appoint another prosecutor to represent the State.”
But Ashley said he didn’t have the authority to compel Carr to name a new prosecutor.
“I’m going to respectfully decline to second guess the attorney general,” the judge said. “It’s the DA’s case until it’s not.”
He suggested Willis send a new recusal request “that may yield a different response.”
Davis said the decision could set a “perilous and dangerous precedent If DA’s in this state are going to be required to reveal information to justify their recusal.”
Carr’s job, he said, shouldn’t involve second-guessing prosecutors.
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