Kathryn Johnston, 92, shot dead in own home by police
11alive.com(1) The police said the elderly grandmother shot three of their best cops, when in fact, she didn’t shoot anyone. [Police initially claimed that three officers were shot by Ms. Johnston. Now they say that Ms. Johnston fired once, hitting no one. --DU Ed.] Worse yet — they planted drugs in her home — in effect, spitting on her grave by turning her into a posthumous criminal.
“And that’s the question I’ve been pondering with over the last five months,” said Atlanta Police Chief Richard Pennington. “What would make police officers make up a story — lie on a senior citizen — plant drugs on a senior citizen?”
The feds wanted to know the same thing. But more importantly, they now want to know just how deep the rabbit hole of corruption goes.
“The FBI will continue to pursue additional allegations of corruption and violations of civil rights,” said Greg Jones of the Atlanta FBI office. “As we have learned through this investigation, that other Atlanta police officers may have engaged in similar conduct.”
11alive.com(2) Recently retired Officer Greg Junnier, 40, faced 33 years in prison if convicted of the charges in the indictment, which was released Thursday. Instead, Junnier made a plea deal which will likely send him to prison for 10 years. As part of the agreement, he pleaded guilty to charges of voluntary manslaughter, violation of his oath of office, criminal solicitation, and making false statements.
Officer J.R. Smith, 35, faced 43 years in prison if convicted, but entered guilty pleas to charges of voluntary manslaughter, violation of his oath of office, making false statements, criminal solicitation, and perjury. He is expected to receive a 12-year prison sentence.
The third officer, Arthur Tesler, refused to make a plea deal and is expected to go to trial on lesser charges of making false statements, false imprisonment and violating his oath of office.
Atlanta Police Chief Richard Pennington said that the entire episode “has been a very painful five months for the police department.”
Indeed. Changing your story so often in such a short time is enough to give you writer’s cramp.
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Related Links:
(1) My original post on this story
(2) 11-Alive News Video
(3) CNN
(4) The Grand Jury Indictments
To Serve and Protect their own asses.
I’m most disturbed by the fact they had drugs ready and on hand to plant at the scene. Were these for personal use or do they generally just carry drugs to plant at crime scenes with them at all times? Sheesh. How do these people live with themselves?
# 19, I think we must agree to disagree on the general integrity of the police department and the legalization of drugs.I do not assume the entire department is rotten just because a few officers might be.
#20 I disagree. At some point as citizens, potential jurors, etc. the validity of snitches are indeed our responsibilty.
I do not know how many of you are aware of the hiring process for Atlanta police. I do, only because I was interested in becoming a 911 operator at one time. Between background checks, psychiatric evaluations, and other tests, it takes nearly a year to be hired to the police department. ( This applies to new hires, I do not know about transfers). By the time the process is finished, if you are just looking for a job, you probably already have one. So those who become cops really want to be cops. I really do not know what else the powers that be can do to recruit better help. They can pay them more, but it will still be the same people able to pass the criteria who are hired.
In my opinion, the cover up was all about the recent trends to charge cops with murder every time something goes down wrong. Accidents do occur and sometimes they are just accidents, but that excuse isn’t good enough in this society any more.
When I’m in trouble, I’ll still call a cop. Who will you call?
#23, Dian
It wasn’t because of charging cops with murder that this happened. When cops have reached the level of planting drugs to gain a conviction, they deserve to spend time with all the bad boys they put away. Planting drugs is the easiest way to make a bad bust stick. But that doesn’t take a criminal off of the streets, it only adds another body into the prison system that doesn’t belong there.
Like it or not, there are many innocent people in jail that can’t prove their innocence because there isn’t any DNA. Lying to make a conviction is an injustice and a criminal act in itself. I don’t want criminals patrolling our streets, I want professional cops. I want a criminal justice system where guilty men will go free before we convict an innocent person. We deserve nothing less.
Accidents will happen. But it isn’t an accident when you swear that you KNOW a fact. It isn’t an accident when you have drugs ready to plant. That was premeditated.
Pennington has probably seen it all in dealing with the corrupt thuggery in the New Orleans police department. The question is whether he has the firepower to fight big Atlanta politics . . . and is HE really committed to honesty, ethics, and seeing justice prevail.
The ongoing concern for me is that it is almost a certainty that the cops see a lot of questionable, probably illegal, things going on within their ranks and have the “blue line” crap used to keep their dirty secrets unknown.