Former Brunswick District Attorney Jackie Johnson is to stand trial in January on charges she hindered the police investigation in the aftermath of Ahmaud Arbery’s murder, according to a court order signed Tuesday.
Superior Court Judge John R. Turner set jury selection to begin Jan. 21 in Glynn County for the trial of Johnson, who lost reelection to her office in 2020. Turner also scheduled a Dec. 11 hearing for all outstanding motions in the case.
Johnson served as DA in the five-county Brunswick Judicial Circuit for a decade. She was indicted in September 2021, two months before Travis McMichael, his father Greg McMichael and a neighbor, William “Roddie” Bryan, were tried and convicted of Arbery’s murder.
Associated Press
Associated Press
Travis McMichael and his father, both of whom were armed, began chasing Arbery, a 25-year-old unarmed Black man, in a pickup truck after Greg McMichael saw Arbery running through the Satilla Shores neighborhood. Bryan soon joined the chase in his own truck. He took cellphone video that showed Arbery being pinned in by the two trucks and then charging at Travis McMichael, who fired three fatal shotgun blasts.
The video of the Feb. 23, 2020, killing sparked a national outcry after it was made public. Almost immediately, the GBI took over the case and soon arrested the McMichaels and Bryan.
Johnson is charged for what she allegedly did shortly after Arbery’s murder.
She stands indicted for violating her oath of office, a felony, for “showing favor and affection” to Greg McMichael, who once worked for the DA’s office as an investigator. The indictment also accuses Johnson of failing “to treat Ahmaud Arbery and his family fairly and with dignity.”
She is also charged with obstruction, a misdemeanor. On the day of Arbery’s killing, she allegedly told two Glynn County police officers not to arrest Travis McMichael, the indictment said.
The three-year-old case has drawn out so long because, over almost the past two years, Johnson’s lead attorney, Brian Steel, has been involved in the Young Slime Life trial, the longest in Georgia history. Turner signed his order setting Johnson’s trial one week after Steel’s client, Young Thug, whose given name is Jeffery Williams, entered a guilty plea and withdrew from the trial.
When reached Tuesday, Steel declined to comment. In prior court filings, Steel said the allegation that Johnson obstructed the police investigation “is wholly specious, unjust and is an impermissible, politically motivated ‘hit job.’”
In a statement, state Attorney General Chris Carr, whose office obtained Johnson’s indictment, said, “We have never stopped fighting for Ahmaud Arbery and his family, and we look forward to presenting our case in court.”
The McMichaels are now serving sentences of life in prison without the possibility of parole and Bryan is serving life with the possibility of parole for the state crimes. The three men were later convicted of federal hate crimes for targeting Arbery because of his race. The McMichaels received life sentences and Bryan a 35-year prison sentence for those convictions.
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