Ex-prosecutor charged with meddling in Ahmaud Arbery case appears in court ahead of trial
BRUNSWICK, Ga. — A former prosecutor in Georgia is accused of illegally interfering with police investigating the 2020 murder Ahmaud Arbery appeared in court for the first time on Wednesday, more than three years after she was indicted by a grand jury.
Jackie Johnson served for a decade as the state’s top prosecutor for the coastal Brunswick Judicial Circuit. She appeared in court on Wednesday as a defendantaccused of violating her oath of office and obstructing police in the investigation of Arbery’s death.
The 25-year-old Black man was fatally shot on February 23, 2020, as he ran in a pickup truck from armed white men who wrongly suspected Arbery was a thief. Greg McMichael, who initiated the deadly chase, was a retired investigator for Johnson’s office. His son, Travis McMichael, killed Arbery with a shotgun.
Prosecutors from Attorney General Chris Carr’s office say Johnson used her position to protect Greg McMichael and urge police not to arrest Travis McMichael.
Johnson has denied wrongdoing and said she immediately withdrew her office from handling the case. Anyway, she was voted out of office months later, amid outrage over Arbery’s murder. A grand jury in September 2021 sued her for a misdemeanor count of violating her oath of office and a misdemeanor count of obstructing a police officer.
At a pre-trial hearing on Wednesday, lead attorney Brian Steel said he plans to present evidence at Johnson’s trial next month that she was focused on seeking a high-profile indictment against a police chief when Arbery was killed.
“She didn’t know what was going on with Ahmaud Arbery’s case,” Steel said.
Prosecutors have said in court filings that there was 16 calls between phone numbers for Johnson and Greg McMichael in the days and weeks after the shooting. Greg McMichael left Johnson a voice message the day Arbery was killed.
Senior Judge John R. Turner has scheduled jury selection for Johnson’s trial to begin Jan. 21. Attorneys for both sides told the judge Wednesday that they expect the case to last about 2 1/2 weeks.
“I think it could take longer because of the sensitivity of the case and the notoriety of the case,” Turner said.
Both McMichaels were convicted murder and federal hate crimes upon Arbery’s death. So did William “Roddie” Bryan, a neighbor who participated in the fatal chase and recorded graphic video of the shooting. All three were charged after Bryan’s video leaked online and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation took over the case from local police. Each is serving a life sentence.
Johnson’s case languished while Steel spent nearly two years in an Atlanta courtroom defending Grammy-winning rapper Young Thug in a sprawling courtroom. racketeering and gang cases.
After Johnson was charged in 2021, she reported to jail for booking and was released without having to post bail. Her lawyers refrained from a formal reading of the indictment in court.
When Johnson entered the courtroom Wednesday, her former chief assistant prosecutor and a former law clerk sat in the gallery with her family.
Turner heard legal motions from both sides to limit what information a jury can hear. Prosecutors want Johnson’s past election successes and high-profile prosecutions declared off-limits. Johnson’s lawyers want other cases in which she has hired an outside prosecutor to be thrown out of her trial.
First, the judge will have to decide whether to let Carr’s office handle the case. Steel has asked Turner to disqualify the Republican attorney general from prosecuting Johnson. He says the indictment accuses Johnson of withholding information from Carr’s office in 2020 when she proposed appointing George Barnhill, the prosecutor from a neighboring jurisdiction, to handle Arbery’s killing.
Carr has said he appointed Barnhill to take over the case, without knowing that Johnson had called him days earlier to alert police. Barnhill told police he saw no reason for arrests because he believed Arbery was shot in self-defense.
Steel said the wording of the complaint makes Carr’s office a victim in the case, and that the case’s employees are key witnesses.
“I don’t believe it’s within the law to allow a prosecutor, or any attorney, to be a witness — a material witness — in a case” they’re trying, Steel said.
There was no immediate ruling from the judge.
Prosecutor John Fowler said people at the attorney general’s office who dealt directly with Johnson in Arbery’s case no longer work there. Fowler accused Steel of trying to push Johnson’s case into a “gray legal limbo” where no one would prosecute her.
“They’re trying to get this case to a point where there’s no way forward,” Fowler said.