The Georgia Supreme Court has thrown out an indictment charging an ex-police chief with misconduct
SAVANNAH, Ga. — Georgia’s highest court on Tuesday filed an indictment charging a former police chief and a top aide with crimes for failing to investigate allegations of misconduct within their department.
The Georgia Supreme Court ruled that the 2021 indictment against former Glynn County Police Chief John Powell and Brian Scott, his former chief of staff, was fatally flawed by technical errors.
A grand jury on the coast of Brunswick, 70 miles (112 kilometers) south of Savannah, indicted Powell and Scott in August 2021 on misdemeanor charges of violating their oath of office. The indictment accused both men of failing to investigate one of their drug task force officers after evidence was shown that the officer had an inappropriate relationship with a man convicted of drug crimes.
The indictment also accused Powell of three additional oath violations, alleging he failed to investigate other narcotics officers accused of harassing traffic stops and conducting investigations outside their jurisdiction.
In a unanimous ruling, the state Supreme Court said the error of the indictment was that it accused both men of violating a specific part of their oath: upholding the right to due process under the U.S. Constitution. According to the judges on Tuesday, turning a blind eye to police misconduct is not a matter of a fair trial.
“It is legally impossible to commit the crimes in the manner alleged by the State in the indictment,” Judge Shawn Ellen LaGrua wrote in the court’s ruling.
The decision could spell the end of efforts to prosecute Powell and Scott. The oath violation charges against both men were dismissed by a judge in September 2020, and prosecutors charged them for a second time almost a year later. Georgian law prohibits charging the same person more than twice for the same “offence, charge or accusation.”
“Mr. Powell and I are both grateful to see justice served,” said Powell’s attorney, Tom Withers.
Scott’s attorney, Tracy Alan Brown, said they were “equally pleased.”
District Attorney Joe Mulholland of the South Georgia Judicial Circuit was assigned to the case after Glynn County prosecutors withdrew. Mulholland did not immediately return phone and email messages.
The scandal allegations involving Powell and Scott ultimately led to the dismantling of the Glynn County Police Department’s drug task force. It also prompted a failed attempt by Georgia lawmakers to abolish the county police force and return law enforcement in parts of Glynn County outside the city of Brunswick to the elected county sheriff.
Powell was first charged and placed on administrative leave in February 2020, just days after Ahmaud Arbery was chased and fatally shot in Glynn County by white men who saw the young Black man running in their neighborhood.
Glynn County police made no arrests, which occurred only after the Georgia Bureau of Investigation took over the case more than two months later. None of the misconduct charges against Powell stemmed from his department’s handling of Arbery’s killing.
Glynn County commissioners fired Powell in 2021. Scott was fired from his job as police chief of Vidalia, Georgia, a few months later when the second indictment was issued.