Atlanta cops who shot grandmother sentenced

[DocZaius]

This story is a few days old, but I'm sure many of you remember when the story broke.

Short version: Atlanta cops dummy up some PC for a no-knock warrant at grandma's house. Thinking (correctly) that someone was trying to break into her house, grandma fires a single shot through the door. Police return fire, killing grandma. Police, finding no drugs in the house, shit themselves and plant marijuana in the basement.

Long version:
http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/atlanta/stories/2009/02/22/kathryn_johnston_sentencing.html

Jason Smith was losing it. “I [screwed] up; I think I killed this woman,” the Atlanta narcotics cop told partner Arthur Tesler in the yard behind a small brick bungalow on Neal Street. “You guys got to help me.”

Inside, a 92-year-old woman lay dead, killed by a fusillade of police bullets. Officer Gregg Junnier, his face grazed by a bullet and bleeding, stalked through the home looking for suspects and contraband.

But there were no dealers, no kilo of cocaine. The tip that brought police to 933 Neal St. was as bogus as the story they used to sell a judge on the raid.

Desperation and self-preservation kicked in. Smith remembered the marijuana seized earlier that day. Better make it look like a drug house, he reckoned. He pulled baggies of pot from his sleeve, nodded to Tesler, and planted them in the basement.

The Nov. 21, 2006, killing of Kathryn Johnston, two days before Thanksgiving, outraged residents of the northwest neighborhood, shocked the nation and rocked Atlanta’s police force. It laid bare the corruption of an out-of-control narcotics squad that lied to get search warrants and planted drugs on suspects.

This time, Smith had authored the trumped-up affidavit. For all three, it was business as usual.

...

Read on, it's an ugly look at what I fear is all too common among police forces, at least those who are big on paramilitary drug raids. The CATO Institute has an interactive map of botched raids here: http://www.cato.org/raidmap/


They got between 5 and 10 years - http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/atlanta/stories/2009/02/23/johnston_sentencing.html

[annarborgator]

From deeper in the article...

The tragic string of events had started at 4 p.m. Nov. 21, 2006, when Tesler roughed up and arrested small-time dope slinger Fabian Sheats and threatened him with prison unless he gave up someone bigger. The nervous suspect eventually picked out Johnston’s home — apparently at random — where he said he saw a dealer named “Sam” with a kilo of cocaine just an hour before. The officers were pumped. A kilo was a huge score for cops used to seizures measured in grams.

But Sheats was unreliable, so they called White at 5:05 p.m. to come make a buy to prove a dealer lived there. White couldn’t come. But for this squad, it didn’t matter. They’d just invent the facts they needed.

The officers were at the Fulton County jail a half hour later to get a warrant from a magistrate. Smith told the judge they had watched “Sam” greet their informant, go inside and sell him drugs. At 5:53 p.m., they had their “no-knock” warrant. It would allow them to batter down the door and catch the criminals inside by surprise.

By 7 p.m. Johnston lay dead, shot five or six times. Believing intruders were at her door, she’d fired her revolver once. The entry team responded with 39 shots.

We need to end the war on drugs; it's that simple. We need to enforce truth and honesty instead. This woman was murdered because the cops don't give a fuck about the truth or justice. Our values are fucked.

[TheTodd]

How the Atlanta police department can live with themselves after an event like that is beyond me. Did you hear about Officer Speedy Mc Speederson in Jacksonville. Doing 98 in a 40 at 1pm on a busy road. He hit someone (86 y/o man), not wearing their seat belt, and that person died. Witnesses said the officer was NOT using his lights or siren. Come to find out he was chasing down someone for a window tint violation, which is probably code for a black guy you think is a drug dealer. Note, this was NOT in a bad area of town.

[annarborgator]

That cop should be charged with murder, IMO. Needs about 20 years in prison, minimum.

[IHateUGAlyDawgs]

w/o intent to kill best you can get is manslaughter...but I don't think that charge would be inappropriate.

[annarborgator]

I'd be fine giving him 5 in and 10 out.