Indictment
Indictments are typically documents that formally lay out criminal charges against people being accused of lawbreaking. This RICO indictment is different. The Georgia Attorney General’s Office is using this indictment as a public relations tool in an attempt to crush a powerful movement in opposition to Cop City. Focusing on the assumed political beliefs of the accused, the RICO indictment vilifies anarchism and attempts to criminalize the routine practices of political organizing. According to Interrupting Criminalization, the indictment contains many unproven and provably false allegations, contested facts, extrapolations, and baseless conclusions.
An annotated version and explainer of the indictment by Interrupting Criminalization can be accessed here.
The complete RICO indictment, with names of the accused redacted, can be accessed here.
Motions & Legal Briefs
General and Special Demurrers to Count One of the Indictment
On November 15, 2023, legal counsel for three Atlanta Solidarity Fund organizers filed a legal brief to dismiss their RICO charges. This brief, outlining “general and special demurrers,” was aimed at invalidating the RICO indictment ahead of trial and is recommended reading to understand the deep problems, incompetence, and ideological motivation of the state’s case. This well-written and entertaining brief argues that the state has failed to lay out sufficient facts to indicate a crime was committed. Instead, the indictment reads like a public relations script or political manifesto.
The brief can be accessed here.
Motion to Disqualify the Attorney General’s Office From Any Further Prosecution of This Case
On June 24, 2024, lawyers for the three Atlanta Solidarity Fund organizers indicted on RICO charges filed a “motion to disqualify the Attorney General’s Office from any further prosecution of this case and to disqualify the Atlanta Police / Homeland Security Unit from any further participation in this case and for further relief including dismissal of the indictment.” The State issued a search warrant in July 2023 seeking email communication from Google and, despite being assured that any privileged attorney-client communication would be “filtered” out, defense lawyers discovered that the State had not only retained and reviewed privileged communication, but also shared that communication with others in the Attorney General’s Office, police investigators working on the case, and all RICO co-defendants, in violation of the three organizers’ Sixth Amendment rights.
The brief can be accessed here.
Motion to Dismiss for State’s Violation of Defendant’s Right to Counsel
On March 15, 2024, legal counsel for Victor Puertas, who was indicted on RICO charges, filed a “motion to dismiss for State’s violation of defendant’s right to counsel or, in the alternative, to suppress attorney-client privileged conversation.” While Mr. Puertas was detained in the DeKalb County Jail for several weeks, after his arrest on March 5, 2023, at a music festival, the State recorded and listened to privileged attorney-client phone conversations, which were later transcribed and disseminated to all RICO co-defendants, in violation of Mr. Puertas’s Sixth Amendment rights.
The brief can be accessed here.