A federal judge has unsealed the FBI’s 2008 report detailing its investigation of the Atlanta police narcotics squad’s fatal shooting of 92-year-old Kathryn Johnston. Johnston died in a hail of gunfire on Nov. 21, 2006, as narcotics officers broke into her home during an illegal drug raid based on a fabricated search warrant. The city last week announced it was settling a suit brought by Johnston’s family for $4.9 million.

On Thursday afternoon, U.S. District Senior Judge Marvin H. Shoob, who has presided over the suit, unsealed the 300-page FBI report as well as pleadings detailing the city’s defenses in the case after inquiries about the sealed records by the Daily Report.

Last year, Shoob granted the city’s request to seal the contents of the FBI report and the city’s pleadings that refer to the report. City attorneys argued that the FBI report should remain sealed until the city completed its own internal affairs investigation of the incident. The city turned over its internal affairs report to lawyers for Johnston’s estate in July.

On Monday, Shoob issued an order to attorneys for the city and Johnston’s family asking them to show cause by the close of business Wednesday as to why the documents should remain under seal. Neither the city nor attorneys for Johnston’s family – who had told the Daily Report earlier this week that they did not object to unsealing the documents in question– filed any objection to unsealing either the city’s pleadings or the FBI report.

On Wednesday, Jerry DeLoach, an assistant city attorney, declined to release the FBI report, saying the city would first need to consult with U.S. Attorney Sally Quillian Yates, whose office prosecuted three of the narcotics officers involved in Johnston’s shooting death.

On Thursday, Shoob unsealed the city’s sealed pleadings, including the FBI report, saying that city attorneys had failed to respond to his show cause order.

Yates could not be reached immediately on Thursday afternoon.

The report—which documents the FBI’s investigative findings in Johnston’s death—included information made public in court pleadings by attorneys for Johnston’s estate. It includes assertions that Atlanta police records revealed that members of the narcotics squad and officers from other APD units falsified information “on numerous search warrant affidavits,” not just the warrant that led police to kick down the door of Johnston’s home.

The report outlined several methods by which a narcotics squad supervisor who is now serving time in federal prison and other APD officers falsified information on search warrant affidavits, padded expense vouchers, mishandled and planted seized illegal drugs and ignored procedures designed to verify that illegal activities were occurring before obtaining warrants.

 The report also documented a quota system of arrests and executed search warrants that attorneys for Johnston’s estate have argued led police officers to cut corners and engage in unconstitutional violations of citizens’ rights simply to bolster their arrest numbers in order to secure good performance evaluations and raises.

The Daily Report will provide more detail on this story on Friday.

Contributor: R. Robin McDonald in News Roundup | subscribe to rss |   share