Organizers of fund that bailed out 'Cop City' protesters seek RICO case dismissal
ATLANTA - The Atlanta Superior Court will hear a motion seeking to dismiss the RICO case against a group that supported activists protesting the police and fire training center that opponents have nicknamed "Cop City."
Adele MacLean, 42, Marlon Scott Kautz, 39, and Savannah Patterson, 30, were arrested in May 2023 on charges of charities fraud and money laundering. They lead the Atlanta Solidarity Fund, which has provided bail money and helped find attorneys for arrested protesters.
The arrests came after Atlanta police executed a search warrant on a house owned by Kautz and MacLean in the city's Edgewood neighborhood.
In the new filing, the three defendants are asking a judge to throw their case out, claiming Attorney General Chris Carr, the Atlanta Police Department and others violated attorney-client privileges by sharing confidential emails with hundreds of law enforcement agents.
Case against the Atlanta Solidarity Fund organizers
‘Cop City’ protesters shocking new allegations
Stunning new allegations were revealed in court Friday against the "Stop Cop City" activists who were arrested during Wednesday's raid in northeast Atlanta. The Georgia Attorney General's Office claims the defendants are tied to numerous violent acts carried out across the country, including the attack on the Georgia Public Safety building in 2020.
A spokesperson for Carr characterized the arrests as "a multi-agency effort and part of an ongoing investigation into violent activity at the site of the future Atlanta Public Safety Training Center and other locations."
In previous hearings, Deputy Attorney General John Fowler described the activists' activities as being a danger to the community.
"On its face, it appears to be laudable, it appears to be lawful," he said of their nonprofit, noting that they run a bail fund and a food fund. But he said investigators have found that the activists "harbor extremist anti-government and anti-establishment views and not all of the money goes to what they say that it goes to."
Fowler said some of the money has been used to fund violent acts against people and property around the city of Atlanta. He cited an attack on Georgia’s Department of Public Safety headquarters in July 2020, vandalism at Ebenezer Baptist Church in January 2022, and protests related to the planned training center that turned violent.
Over $230,000 of donations has been distributed to a separate fund, known as the Forest Justice Defense Fund, Fowler alleged, which supports activism against the training site.
Attorneys for the organizers and local activists have argued that the three defendants have not been accused of participating in any violent behavior and that the charges appear to be an intimidation tactic by the state.
"The fact that what you do happens to help some people do bad things doesn’t mean that you’re guilty of joining in a conspiracy with them," attorney Don Samuel said. "It doesn’t mean that the action that you’ve taken, even if it facilitates misconduct, is something that renders you culpable."
Debate around the Atlanta Public Safety Training Center
Protests against the training center have been ongoing for more than two years.
Dickens and other supporters say the 85-acre, $90 million facility would replace inadequate training facilities and would help address difficulties in hiring and retaining police officers. Opponents have expressed concern that it could lead to greater police militarization and that its construction in the South River Forest will worsen environmental damage in a poor, majority-Black area.
Protests against the project, which have at times resulted in violence and vandalism, escalated after the fatal shooting in January 2023 of Tortuguita, an activist who was occupying the forest. A special prosecutor in October 2023 said he would not pursue charges against the state troopers who shot Paez Terán, saying he found that their use of deadly force was "objectively reasonable."
In August 2023, Carr indicted 61 protesters using the state's anti-racketeering law, characterizing them as "militant anarchists."
This year, protesters have vandalized construction vehicles and disrupted traffic near sites for companies connected with the project.
The city says the issues caused by protesters have raised the cost of the training center by about $20 million.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.