Atlanta sued in police killing of 92-year-old

[Stoner4Life]

Relatives act after two officers plead guilty to manslaughter

ATLANTA - The family of a 92-year-old woman fatally shot during a botched drug raid has filed a lawsuit against the city and police on the first anniversary of the killing.

The State Court lawsuit was filed Wednesday by a niece of Kathryn Johnston, accusing them of racketeering, civil rights violations, assault, false imprisonment and negligence.

The suit targets the city, Police Chief Richard Pennington and five current and former police officers. The family is seeking unspecified damages.

Hezekiah Sistrunk Jr., an attorney for the niece, Sarah Dozier, said they had attempted to talk to the city about a settlement.

"That has been unsuccessful. That is why we are here today," he said at a news conference.

Plainclothes narcotics officers burst into Johnston's home Nov. 21, 2006, using a no-knock warrant. Johnston was killed during the raid in a hail of nearly 40 police gunshots.

Prosecutors said the officers obtained the warrant by falsely telling a judge that an informant confirmed drug dealing at the home. The informant later told federal investigators he was told by police to concoct the tale.

Officer allegedly planted marijuana
Prosecutors also said that one of the police officers planted three bags of marijuana in Johnston's home as part of a cover-up after no drugs were found.

The suit accuses officers who raided the home of violating Johnston's constitutional protections against unreasonable searches and seizures and the use of unreasonable and excessive deadly force. It cites witness tampering in its racketeering accusation.

Prosecutors charged three officers involved in the raid. Two of the officers, Jason R. Smith and Gregg Junnier, pleaded guilty to state manslaughter and federal civil rights charges. They have left the police force. A judge Tuesday ordered the two to turn themselves in by Dec. 3. No sentencing date has been set.

A third officer, Arthur Tesler, who is on administrative leave, faces charges of violating the oath of a public officer, making false statements and false imprisonment under color of legal process. His attorney has said Tesler expects to go to trial.

All three are named as defendants in the lawsuit.

"I am thankful my aunt's innocence has been proven," Dozier said in a statement read to reporters. "I am also deeply saddened that the city of Atlanta has refused to admit responsibility for unconstitutional practices."

Dozier was not present at the news conference.

No comment from city, police
Beverly Isom, a spokeswoman for Mayor Shirley Franklin, declined to comment on the suit, referring calls to an attorney for the city. The attorney, Jerry De Loach, declined to comment, saying the city had yet to be served with the lawsuit and wanted to review it before responding.

Officer Ronald Campbell, a spokesman for Atlanta police, said, "We are unable to comment on anything because of the legalities of it."


how crazy is this crap? we all know that evidence has been planted by police since police were empowered, if this woman had been 40 or younger there wouldn't ever have been an investigation or reversal of circumstances....... that poor woman was killed because someone tried to rat her out (and was lying) turning her in for dealing.

I was also the unlucky recipient of a police sting that went bad. Unfortunately for the cops it went bad on them. Read this icmag post to see what happened to me--> cops suck I was sold out (lied about) as a pot dealer & I turned the tables on the head narcotics officer involved. Stung them all back!

 

[Classyathome]

Good - fry those lyin' murderers...

Bad cops suck donkey balls

Plantin' weed alone should be reason to do 10 yrs with a series of large black dicks shoved up your butt daily...

 

[Guest]

why the **** would they need guns when they're raiding the home of a 92 year old woman, anyways? just kick her walker out from underneath her and she'll go down easy, no need for guns

 

[devilgoob]

they just barge in and shoot her? id like to do that to THEM

 

[George Hayduke]

No she was shooting at them because she lived in a poor neighborhood and thought people were breaking in. someone lied and said her house was a drug dwelling and it was not. cops knew it wasn't and they they were being lied to but they busted the door down anyway. the lady thought she was probably being robbed and shot at them since they were in street clothes.
i remember this, i was visiting a friend right when this happened.

 

[guineapig]

How interesting that they CONVIENTLY had marijuana to plant at the scene.......things that make you go hmmmmmm.....

The cops plead guilty to manslaughter, but i wonder how long they will go to jail (or perhaps only given probation?)

Absolutely right for the family to SUE in civil court......will most likely be settled by the city of Atlanta (out of court) after stalling for several years....

Another casualty of the Drug War, may god rest her soul....

kind regards from guineapig

 

[Stoner4Life]

How interesting that they CONVIENTLY had marijuana to plant at the scene.......things that make you go hmmmmmm.....

The cops plead guilty to manslaughter, but i wonder how long they will go to jail (or perhaps only given probation?)

Absolutely right for the family to SUE in civil court......will most likely be settled by the city of Atlanta (out of court) after stalling for several years....

Another casualty of the Drug War, may god rest her soul....

kind regards from guineapig

As I recall from the original article on this they had two ounces of bud in the trunk of one squad car, when asked why that cop couldn't come up with any adequate reason. We now know they drive around with that in their possession 'just in case', after all it was the cops that invented the 'throw away' pistol. The one they kept to plant on a dead perp.......

 

[Storm Crow]

Kathryn Johnston died in a hail of bullets.....

Kathryn Johnston died in a hail of bullets.....

http://news.yahoo.com/s/usnw/200810...ads_guilty_in_fatal_shooting_of_elderly_woman



Third Atlanta Police Officer Pleads Guilty In Fatal Shooting of Elderly Woman
2 hrs 35 mins ago

To: NATIONAL EDITORS

Contact: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Public Affairs, +1-202-514-2007, TDD +1-202-514-1888

WASHINGTON, Oct. 30 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Justice Department announced today that former Atlanta Police Department (APD) Officer Arthur Bruce Tesler pleaded guilty in federal district court to conspiring to violate the civil rights of Kathryn Johnston, 92, in connection with her fatal shooting during the execution of an illegal search warrant at her Atlanta home on Nov.21, 2006.

Tesler, of Ackworth, Ga., joins two other former APD officers who pleaded guilty last year to state and federal charges in the case. Gregg Junnier, of Woodstock, Ga., and Jason R. Smith, of Oxford, Ga., pleaded guilty in state court to voluntary manslaughter, violation of oath by a public officer, criminal solicitation and false statements, and in federal court to a civil rights conspiracy violation that resulted in the death of Ms. Johnston. Smith also pleaded guilty in state court to one count of perjury. Junnier and Smith also agreed to cooperate in a broader investigation of APD officer misconduct, which has since been completed.

When law enforcement officers do not live up to the high ideals they typically uphold, we will not hesitate to take action, said Grace Chung Becker, Acting Assistant Attorney General for the Justice Departments Civil Rights Division. The Department of Justice will continue to vigorously prosecute those who cross the line and commit such violent criminal acts.

According to the information presented in court, Junnier and Smith, on several occasions while working as APD narcotics officers, made false statements in sworn affidavits to state magistrate judges in order to obtain no knock search warrants for residences and other locations where the officers believed illegal drugs would be found.

On the afternoon of Nov. 21, 2006, Smith, Junnier and Tesler executed such a warrant at Johnstons home, knowing that the warrant had been obtained on the basis of false information that Smith had presented to a magistrate judge. The victim, who was the only occupant of the house, fired through the door a single .38 caliber shot, which hit no one. Junnier, Smith and four other officers returned fire, hitting the victim with five or six shots, one of which was fatal.

Officers searched the home after the shooting, but found no drugs. Smith then planted in the basement of the house three bags of marijuana that the officers had seized elsewhere earlier that day. Tesler then filed a false APD incident report stating that a purchase of crack had been made at Johnstons home earlier that day and Smith submitted two bags containing crack that falsely indicated the drugs were bought by an informant at 933 Neal Street, the home of the victim. The defendants also met to fabricate a story, which they later recounted to APD homicide investigators, falsely justifying the events leading to the shooting of Kathryn Johnston.

Under Teslers plea agreement, the parties agreed that the appropriate sentence under the advisory federal sentencing guidelines is 121 months. The federal sentence will run concurrently with Teslers 54 month state sentence arising from the same criminal conduct. Junnier also faces a guidelines sentence of 121 months, and Smith faces a guidelines sentence of 151 months; those two defendants may, however, receive reductions based on their cooperation with the Governments investigation.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Jon-Peter Kelly, U.S. Attorney David E. Nahmias, and Department of Justice Civil Rights Division Special Litigation Counsel Paige M. Fitzgerald are prosecuting the case.

SOURCE U.S. Department of Justice


(I seem to be using this a lot lately)


Granny

 

[Classyathome]

Hooohaaaaa - those boys are gonna be popular in the showers...

Only way to stop the gangs from knifin' 'em is to suck their weenies.

For 10 yrs...

Not even close to making up for the crap they pulled, and certainly not the old lady they killed, but...

There is a certain symmetry in leo dicksuckers really becoming disgraced ex leo dicksuckers...

 

[Dragor]

Drugs and the money associated with them is the main source of police corruption...
Dem pigs are always blackmailing and "setting up" otherwise harmless drug dealers for their own good... these bastards turn around and sell the drugs they confiscate, it happens every day, under the table, beneath a black uniform...
If drugs were legalized that would end all the unnecessary killings by pigs and gang against gang violence that is conspired by the police.
Poor old lady... I hope they scorch those muthafuckas with a flamethrower so they experience hell before getting flamed and assfucked by satan himself... 10 years is bullshit for perjury and conspiracy of this kind!

 

[demonicaardvark]

i can't believe that so many police officers were this evil, usually something this bad is the work of just one evil person

 

[Trying-to-blend]

Good - fry those lyin' murderers...

Bad cops suck donkey balls

Plantin' weed alone should be reason to do 10 yrs with a series of large black dicks shoved up your butt daily...

what makes you think they're not gay? there's a reason one of the village people was a cop...

 

[Stoner4Life]

Thnx for the update Storm Crow,

nicest thing about them getting federal time is they'll wind up doing 90% of it.

 

[LiLWaynE]

those 5-0 are in serious trouble when they hit the pen....

no need for a flamethrower...

 

[thekingofNY]

this story is a perfect example of our amazing gun laws and some states castle doctrine' laws working extremely well IMO. My state u have to literally be practically shot before u could hurt an intruder, (u can only use equal force), so if they have a knife, u cant shoot them... they will sue you if they dont die, and if they do their family will....

Other states that jackass is committing a felony, and threatning ur home, u dont even have to say stop

S4L, u mean 100%? Fed time does get any good or gain time last time i checked... which granted was damn 4 years ago now....whew i been good lately

but yah, a 4 year fed sentence is 48 months time served I thought. Then again Martha Stewart did fed time, and i dont think she did her whole sentence, then again i think she got another judge to let her out on a ankle braclet and chill at her fucking mansion for the rest of her sentence. What sort of probation is that? Dont have to work, stroll around 10k sq ft house?

 

[Stoner4Life]

yeah koNY, it can certainly be 100% of the time given but early release to halfway houses and/or offers of prolonged parole terms when quite close to the end of your sentence is common too.

 

[nycdfan042]

How low can LEO go?? everyday they seem to test the depths, SCUM cretins. Grandma put up a fight, she wasnt about to let anyone rush up in her crib.
The sudden rash of police involved shootings are increasing in NYC they acquited all those cops who killed those kids coming home from a bachelor party in jamaica queens(no guns were found, yet they were shot over 40 times). These incidents arent winning the hearts and minds inthe community theyre just pissing them off, every one of those cops should be serving a 2nd degree murder sentence @ the very least & the families of the police should have to pay the family of that poor old woman big $$ for the rest of their live...PERIOD a lesson needs to be taught an example should be made, this kind of corruption isnt to be tollerated.. FUCK BLOOMBERG

 

[RudolfTheRed]

When they broke down the door
and put their guns in the face of your wife and child
and as they pinned you to the floor
did you say "officer, i am not resisting you. " ?


American Justice american dream
is this what ' the other half ' means
half of our lives dissolved in fear
half of our rights they disappear
is our apathy so corrosive
where does the cycle start
hear the sirens screaming out in the distance
hold your family close to your heart


American Justice American Lies
a war of words that I despise
I wish the good cops If they exist
the very best
and a bullet for all the


complications injustice deliberations what's the deal
they fake it, we break it, and take back what they steal
we could rise black and white unbound and make them pay
for every tear, for every fear, defend our yesterdays


when they dropped the bomb on the building to kill a MOVEment
did they care where the rights of the murdered went
police terror in the eyes of the children
police terror in the streets of every town
where's our freedom when the sun goes down
and will the houses that the landlords built keep out the bullet sound


American Justice American Lies
a racist prison
anaesthetized
I wish the good cops If they exist
the very best
and a bullet for all the . . .


so we try
to defend
together


defend our yesterdays , defend our tomorrows
together