Georgia judge tosses landmark racketeering charges against 'Cop City' protesters

ATLANTA — A Georgia judge on Tuesday tossed racketeering charges against dozens of defendants accused of a yearslong conspiracy to halt the construction of a police and firefighter training facility that critics call ''Cop City.''

Fulton County Judge Kevin Farmer said in the order that Republican Attorney General Chris Carr didn't have the authority to secure the 2023 indictments under Georgia's Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations law, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported. Farmer said he needed permission from Gov. Brian Kemp.

Carr's office said in a statement that they plan to appeal.

''We strongly disagree with this decision and will continue to vigorously pursue this domestic terrorism case to ensure that justice is served,'' his office said.

The 61 defendants in what experts call the largest criminal racketeering case filed against protesters in U.S. history faced such allegations as throwing Molotov cocktails at police officers and providing protesters with food. Each defendant faced up to 20 years in prison on the racketeering charges.

Five of them have also been indicted on charges of domestic terrorism and first-degree arson related a night in 2023 when masked activists burned a police car in downtown Atlanta and threw rocks at a skyscraper home to the Atlanta Police Foundation. Farmer has said Carr also didn't have the authority to pursue the arson charge but that the domestic terrorism charge can likely stand.

Amanda Clark Palmer, an attorney for one of the protesters, praised the judge's decision, saying ''the prosecution did not follow the law when filing these charges,'' according to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

The long-brewing controversy over the training center came to a head in January 2023 after state troopers who were part of a sweep of the South River Forest killed a 26-year-old activist, known as ''Tortuguita,'' who authorities said had fired at them while inside a tent near the construction site. A prosecutor found the troopers' actions '' objectively reasonable." Tortuguita's family filed a lawsuit, saying his hands were in the air and that troopers used excessive force when they initially fired pepper balls into the tent.

Protests erupted, with masked vandals sometimes attacking police vehicles and construction equipment to stall the project and intimidate contractors into backing out. Opponents also pursued such civic paths to halt the facility as packing City Council meetings and leading a large-scale referendum effort that got tied up in the courts.

Carr, who is running for governor, had pursued the case. Kemp hailed it as an important step to combat ''out-of-state radicals that threaten the safety of our citizens and law enforcement.''