It seems like the good ol’ boys’ network is feeling the heat after a former Georgia prosecutor was indicted on Sept. 2 on misconduct charges alleging she used her position to protect the men who are on trial for killing Ahmaud Arbery.
A grand jury in Glynn County indicted former Brunswick Judicial Circuit District Attorney Jackie Johnson on a felony count of violating her oath of office and hindering a law enforcement officer, a misdemeanor, according to the Associated Press. Johnson failed to charge the defendants immediately after the shooting and is accused of shielding them from prosecution.
Three White men are accused of killing Arbery, a Black man, as he jogged through a Brunswick, Georgia neighborhood on Feb. 23, 2020. Gregory and Travis McMichael, a father and son, and their neighbor William “Roddie” Bryan Jr. are awaiting trial this fall for chasing and killing 25-year-old Arbery. The McMichaels pursued Arbery in a pickup truck after they spotted him in their neighborhood. Bryan joined the chase and took cellphone video of Travis McMichael shooting Arbery three times at close range with a shotgun.
Police did not charge any of the three men immediately following the shooting, and they remained free for more than two months until the cellphone video of the shooting was leaked online and Gov. Brian Kemp asked the Georgia Bureau of Investigation to take over the case.
Greg McMichael and Johnson had previous ties as he used to work as an investigator in her office before retiring in 2019. Evidence introduced in pretrial hearings in the murder case shows he called Johnson’s cellphone and left her a voice message soon after the shooting occurred.
“Jackie, this is Greg,” he said, according to a recording of the call included in the public case file obtained by the AP. “Could you call me as soon as you possibly can? My son and I have been involved in a shooting and I need some advice right away.”
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