DeKalb County District Attorney Sherry Boston announced Friday that her office was withdrawing from all cases involving the Atlanta Public Safety Training Center that opponents have dubbed “Cop City.” That includes domestic terrorism and related charges for about 42 people arrested during demonstrations against the center.
In an exclusive interview with WABE’s Rose Scott, Boston cited “fundamentally different prosecution philosophies” between her and Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr’s office.
“We had some differences, when I say we, I mean me and the attorney general’s office, about who should be charged and what they should be charged with,” Boston said.
DeKalb and the state attorney general had concurrent jurisdiction over these cases. Boston’s decision to walk away means Carr’s office will only oversee the prosecution of the 42 protesters.
Boston confirmed his objections to the prosecution of Thomas Webb Jurgensa Southern Poverty Law Center observer who was arrested along with protesters and charged with domestic terrorism.
“That was one of the touchpoints in a series of touchpoints that ultimately led me to make the decision I’ve made here now,” he said. “The value of our office is that I will only proceed in cases that I believe I can make beyond a reasonable doubt.”
Before the arrests, protesters had been occupying the forest near the proposed training center for more than a year.
Boston said it was damaging for law enforcement to have to react to a situation that had been slowly eroding for some time.
“Getting on a task force to try to address a problem that was already bubbling up…For us as law enforcement officers, I would have said, if I could go back, we should have started a lot earlier and then maybe we could to have prevented the death of someone and a law enforcement officer who were seriously injured after this incident.”
Georgia State Patrol troopers shot and killed 26-year-old Manuel Terandd during a sweep operation in January. Authorities say Teran shot a state trooper in the abdomen, but an official autopsy by the DeKalb County Coroner’s Office found no gunpowder residue on Teran’s hands.
In a press release Fridaythe Boston office said they would approach any future arrests related to the training center like any other in their jurisdiction.
