DA Charged With Misconduct In Ahmaud Arbery Case To Stand Trial, Judge Denies Request To Dismiss

Johnson was accused of tampering with the case in favor of one of the suspected killers.

Former district attorney Jackie Johnson will stand trial for charges of misconduct related to the murder of Ahmaud Arbery. Johnson filed a motion to have the case dismissed, but a judge denied the request, The Root reports.

Johnson was accused of tampering with the case in favor of one of the suspected killers, Greg McMichael, who worked for the district attorney’s office at the time. Investigators found over a dozen calls made between McMichael and Johnson following Arbery’s killing and accused the Johnson of using her authority to influence law enforcement not to order the arrest of McMichael, his son, and their neighbor.

More than two months passed before the men were apprehended by authorities for their involvement in the death of Arbery. Their arrest was spurred by video of their harassment and subsequent murder of the 25-year-old Black man being released, The Associated Press reports. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation took over the case from local jurisdiction and charged Johnson with a felony count of violating her oath of office as well as a misdemeanor charge of tampering.

McMichael, his son Travis, and their neighbor William “Roddie” Bryan, followed Arbery as he jogged through their Glynn County, GA, neighborhood before gunning him down. The trio later told police that they assumed Arbery was “a burglar” and pursued him in an act of vigilante justice.

The McMichaels were sentenced to life with no possibility of parole plus an additional 20 years on Jan. 7, 2022. Bryan, who recorded the killing on his cellphone, was sentenced to life with the possibility of parole after 30 years. On Feb. 22, 2022, all three men were found guilty of attempted kidnapping and a hate crime identified as “interference of rights.”

Johnson was voted out of office in 2020 following claims of misconduct in the Arbery case.