A former Georgia district attorney charged with illegally interfering with police investigating the 2020 killing of Ahmaud Arbery made her first court appearance Wednesday, more than three years after being indicted by a grand jury.
Jackie Johnson spent a decade as the state’s top prosecutor for the coastal Brunswick Judicial Circuit. She came to court Wednesday as a defendant, charged with violating her oath of office and hindering police as they investigated Arbery's death.
The 25-year-old Black man was fatally shot on Feb. 23, 2020, as he ran from armed white men in a pickup truck who wrongly suspected Arbery was a thief. Greg McMichael, who initiated the deadly chase, was a retired investigator for Johnson's office. His son, Travis McMichael, killed Arbery with a shotgun.
Prosecutors for state Attorney General Chris Carr’s office say Johnson used her position to protect Greg McMichael and to urge police not to arrest Travis McMichael.
Johnson has denied wrongdoing and said she immediately recused her office from handling the case. Regardless, she was voted out of office months later amid outrage over Arbery’s killing. In September 2021, a grand jury indicted her on a felony count of violating her oath of office and a misdemeanor count of hindering a police officer.
During a pretrial hearing on Wednesday, lead defense attorney Brian Steel said he plans to present evidence during Johnson's trial next month that she was focused on seeking a high-profile indictment against a police chief when Arbery was killed.
“She didn't know what was going on with Ahmaud Arbery's case,” Steel said.
Prosecutors have said in court filings there were 16 calls between phone numbers for Johnson and Greg McMichael in the days and weeks after the shooting. Greg McMichael left Johnson a voice message the day Arbery was killed.
Senior Judge John R. Turner has scheduled jury selection for Johnson's trial to start Jan. 21. Attorneys on both sides told the judge Wednesday they expect the case to take about 2 1/2 weeks.
“I think because of the sensitivity of the case and the notoriety of the case, it may take longer,” Turner said.
Both McMichaels were convicted of murder and federal hate crimes in Arbery's death. So was William “Roddie” Bryan, a neighbor who joined the fatal chase and recorded graphic cellphone video of the shooting. All three were charged after Bryan's video leaked online and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation took over the case from local police. Each is serving a life prison sentence.
Johnson's case sat dormant while Steel spent nearly two years in an Atlanta courtroom defending Grammy-winning rapper Young Thug in a sprawling racketeering and gang case.
After Johnson was charged in 2021, she reported to jail for booking and was released without having to post bond. Her attorneys waived a formal reading of the charges in court.
When Johnson entered the courtroom Wednesday, her former chief assistant prosecutor and a former court clerk sat in the gallery with her family.
Turner heard legal motions from both sides seeking to limit what information a jury is allowed to hear. Prosecutors want Johnson's past electoral successes and high-profile prosecutions declared off-limits. Johnson's lawyers want other cases in which she called for an outside prosecutor kept out of her trial.
First, the judge will have to decide whether to let Carr's office try the case. Steel has asked Turner to disqualify the Republican attorney general from prosecuting Johnson. He says the indictment accuses Johnson of withholding information from Carr's office in 2020 when she suggested it appoint George Barnhill, a neighboring jurisdiction's prosecutor, to handle Arbery's killing.
Carr has said he appointed Barnhill to take over the case without knowing that Johnson days earlier had already called on him to advise police. Barnhill told police he saw no grounds for arrests, as he believed Arbery was shot in self-defense.
Steel said the indictment's wording makes Carr's office a victim in the case, and its employees key witnesses.
“I don't believe it is within the law to allow a prosecutor, or any lawyer, to be a witness — a material witness — in a case” that they are trying, Steel said.
There was no immediate ruling from the judge.
Prosecutor John Fowler said people in the attorney general's office who dealt directly with Johnson in Arbery's case no longer work there. Fowler accused Steel of trying to steer Johnson's case into a “gray legal limbo” where no one would prosecute her.
“They're trying to get this case into a place where it cannot move forward," Fowler said.
