BRUNSWICK, Ga. (AP) — A judge this week postponed a court hearing of a former Georgia prosecutor charged with interfering in a 2020 police investigation. Murder of Ahmad Arbery.
Superior Court Judge John R. Turner has ordered former Brunswick Judiciary Circuit District Attorney Jackie Johnson’s court appearance, originally scheduled for Thursday, to be held later, according to court records. I have not.
Johnson has not appeared in court since September 2021 when he was charged with violating his oath of office and obstructing police investigating Arbery’s murder. On February 23, 2020, a pick-up white man in his truck chased a young black man after spotting him running in his coastal Brunswick suburban neighborhood. The chase ended with Arbery shot dead in the street.
Greg McMichael, who started the chase, was a retiree who worked as an investigator for Johnson. Although she was still the county’s top attorney when Arbery was murdered, she lost her re-election campaign a few months later.
The indictment against Johnson alleges that she used her office to try to protect Greg McMichael and his adult son, Travis McMichael, who fired the deadly shotgun blast, from prosecution. are accusing.
The arrests of both McMichaels and William “Rody” Bryan, a neighbor who took part in the chase and recorded a cell phone video of the murder, were made when the video leaked online and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation reportedly investigated the case from the local area. It was over two months after I took over. police.
McMichaels and Bryan have all been convicted of murder and federal hate crimes.
Johnson denied any wrongdoing and promptly withdrew from the investigation into Arbery’s death.