First Cop City RICO Trial Interrupted on Day One

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: January 11, 2024

First Cop City RICO Trial Interrupted on Day One, Defense to Take Violation of Speedy Trial Right to Georgia Court of Appeals

Defense argued the court failed to start trial within speedy trial limits, Judge Adams claims that King’s statutory rights were not violated

ATLANTA, GA — On Wednesday, the first day of the first jury trial in a sweeping Georgia RICO indictment against 61 activists opposed to Cop City, the defense for Ayla King, 19, argued that King’s statutory speedy trial rights were violated and the case against King should be dismissed. The motion to dismiss was initially argued on Monday by King’s lawyer Surinder K. Chadha Jimenez, but Fulton County Superior Court Judge Kimberly Adams chose not to rule that day and gave the defense another chance to argue it on Wednesday morning. Judge Adams claimed that King’s trial began in December with jury selection, and no speedy trial violation occurred, compelling the defense to take the motion up to the Georgia Court of Appeals. An appeal will be filed soon and a decision is not expected from the Court of Appeals for at least 2-4 weeks.

If the Court of Appeals rules that King’s speedy trial rights were violated, King’s RICO case should be dismissed. If the court rules that King’s speedy trial rights were not violated, the trial will continue as planned soon thereafter. In the meantime, Judge Adams has temporarily excused the jury until the Court of Appeals rules. If and when the trial against King begins again, it is expected to last four weeks.

“By continuing with these baseless allegations and RICO charges, the state is choosing to defy its own constitution,” said Aslan King, the father of Ayla King. “In addition to trampling on the rights of my child, the State of Georgia is also flagrantly wasting the time and money of Georgia taxpayers, and upending the lives of all involved, from my family to the jurors whose lives have been continuously interrupted by the State’s negligence, since being seated in early December.”

King is one of more than 20 people indiscriminately arrested at the South River Music Festival on March 5, 2023. On the same day that King and numerous others were arrested, a large group of people had destroyed property at the Cop City construction site roughly a mile away, burning construction equipment and a trailer. Police later raided the “South River Music Festival” about an hour later, detaining over 30 people. Police reports recently uncovered by the Atlanta Community Press Collective show that the vast majority of detainees with in-state residences were released with a criminal trespass warning, while  those with out-of-state residences were arrested and charged with domestic terrorism, including King, who resides in Worcester, MA.

“The state is using the RICO charges against Ayla King and 60 others not yet on trial to criminalize political opposition to Cop City,” said local activist Steven Hall. “The truth is that Cop City, if built, would not only further militarize the police locally, but also train cops from around the country to export terror and repress social movements in their own communities.”

King spent a month in the Dekalb County Jail before being released on bond, while some others remained incarcerated for up to 3 months, the maximum the state can hold an arrestee without an indictment. One Indigenous defendant from Utah, Victor Puertas, has remained in indefinite ICE custody due to his citizenship status. In September 2023, all of those arrested on March 5th would be included in a sweeping RICO indictment aiming to characterize their presence at the South River Music Festival as evidence of participation in an alleged criminal enterprise.

The motion to dismiss denied by Judge Adams yesterday is among many defense motions denied by the court, including an effort by the defense to exclude from evidence what the prosecution is calling the “diary” of Manuel Esteban Paez Terán, also known as Tortuguita, who was shot and killed by Georgia State Patrol Troopers on January 18, 2023. Memorial events are planned next week for Tortuguita in several cities across the country, including in Atlanta, Chicago, San Francisco, Austin, Chattanooga, Seattle and New York City.

All parties in the trial are under a gag order imposed by Judge Adams, preventing them from discussing the case publicly outside of the courtroom. Trials for the remaining 60 RICO cases are expected to begin this summer.

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