ATLANTA – The evidence police typically obtain through no-knock search warrants aren’t worth the inherent risks of knocking unannounced on a citizen’s door in the middle of the night, a criminal defense lawyer said Tuesday.
“No-knock warrants are almost exclusively used for drug cases. They’re never used for kidnapping, burglary, murder or theft,” Catherine Bernard, a partner with Atlanta’s Bernard & Johnson LLC, told members of a state Senate study committee. “[But] no-knock warrants are incredibly dangerous for everyone involved on both sides of the transaction.”
The Senate Study Committee on Law Enforcement Reform was formed this year as a follow-up to a hate crimes bill the General Assembly passed at the end of this year’s legislative session in June. Both the Senate panel and the House Judiciary Non-Civil Committee held hearings during the summer and fall to consider potential reforms to policing and the state’s criminal justice system.
Besides no-knock warrants, the committees also have been taking testimony on Georgia’s citizens arrest law and the legal doctrine of “qualified immunity” that protects police officers from civil suits under certain circumstances.
While Georgia law does not give police the authority to execute no-knock search warrants, judges can and do sign orders allowing them if law enforcement authorities can show knocking on a criminal suspect’s door might be dangerous or might inhibit an investigation by, for example, giving suspects time to flush drugs down a toilet.
Pete Skandalakis, executive director of the Prosecuting Attorneys’ Council of Georgia, said no-knock warrants are rare in Georgia.
“I’ve been a prosecutor for 32 years. I have not seen many of them,” he said.
Bernard said no-knock warrants are routine, but most don’t get attention because they don’t yield the tragic results that make them high-profile cases.
Exceptions in Georgia include the death of David Hooks, a 59-year-old grandfather in East Dublin shot in 2015 during a drug raid based on false information from an informer, and Kathryn Johnston, an elderly Atlanta woman shot to death in 2006 during a raid by undercover police officers at what turned out to be the wrong address.
“Innocent lives are destroyed by no-knock search warrants,” Bernard said.
Bernard said justifying no-knock warrants as necessary to keep suspects from getting rid of illegal drugs doesn’t hold up because anyone possessing a large quantity of drugs wouldn’t be able to dump them so quickly.
“If it’s something that can be flushed down the toilet, it’s not worth risking somebody’s life over,” she said.
While Bernard urged senators not to tamper with the current state law that prohibits no-knock warrants, others who testified called for the repeal of Georgia’s citizens arrest law, which has come under scrutiny because of the Ahmaud Arbery case.
Three white men were arrested last spring in the February shooting death of Arbery, an unarmed Black man from Brunswick who was jogging in the men’s neighborhood. At first, the local prosecutor declined to bring charges, citing the citizens arrest law.
“The racist history of our law is on display,” said Mazie Lynn Causey, general counsel for the Georgia Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. “It allows private individuals to take on the role of enforcer, prosecutor and judge.”
Other witnesses at Tuesday’s hearing complained that allowing police officers who commit misconduct in carrying out their duties qualified immunity from civil suits makes the burden of proof to win such cases virtually impossible.
Chris Stewart, an Atlanta personal injury and civil rights attorney, said he’s working on legislative proposals to either eliminate or modify Georgia’s qualified immunity law.
But Skandalakis said qualified immunity serves a useful purpose in law enforcement in that it encourages police officers to do their jobs without being afraid of being sued.
“Qualified immunity is not absolute immunity,” he added. “A police officer who does not follow policies and procedures or does not act in a reasonable manner can lose qualified immunity.”
Both the House and Senate committees are expected to make recommendations for the full General Assembly to consider when lawmakers return next month for the 2021 session.
Legislation aimed at drawing more visitors to former President Jimmy Carter’s hometown of Plains is on its way to President Donald Trump for his signature.
The U.S. Senate unanimously passed a bill on Monday that already had cleared the House of Representatives re-designating the Jimmy Carter National Historic Site as the “Jimmy Carter National Historical Park.”
The measure was introduced into Congress by Sen. David Perdue, R-Ga., and Rep. Sanford Bishop, D-Albany, and cosponsored by the entire Georgia congressional delegation.
“No matter where life has taken me, from the Governor’s Mansion to the White House, Plains has always been my home,” Carter said Monday. “Rosalynn joins me in thanking Senator Perdue, Congressman Bishop and the Georgia delegation for helping preserve my family’s legacy.”
The re-designation will help protect three current sites in Plains: Carter’s boyhood farm, Plains High School – the alma mater of both Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter, now a museum – and the Plains Train Depot, which served as headquarters for Carter’s presidential campaign.
Eventually, the home where the Carters now live and their gravesites will be included in the park.
After serving as Georgia’s governor in the early 1970s, Carter – a Democrat – was elected president in 1976 when he defeated Republican incumbent Gerald Ford. Carter served one term before he lost to Republican Ronald Reagan in 1980.
Many of the visitors who travel to Plains ride the SAM Shortline Excursion Train, a tourist attraction in its own right connecting downtown Cordele with Plains via Americus.
Greg Dozier, commissioner, Technical College System of Georgia
ATLANTA – The Technical College System of Georgia awarded $9 million in grants Monday to establish new College and Career academies in Appling, Evans and Union counties.
Three technical colleges will partner with local education systems to establish the academies, with each receiving $3 million.
Coastal Pines Technical College will work with Appling County Schools to establish the Appling Regional College and Career Academy. The Evans Regional College and Career Academy will be run through a partnership of Ogeechee Technical College and Evans County Schools.
North Georgia Technical College will partner with Union County Schools to establish the Union County College and Career Academy.
Georgia’s network of college and career academies give high school students a chance to develop skills in demand in the state’s workforce.
“The addition of these three College and Career academies in Georgia means we are providing more students with learning opportunities that link directly to workforce needs,” said Greg Dozier, commissioner of the state’s technical college system.
“More high school students will experience an education that connects the classroom to a career through valuable partnerships made with local industry.”
The three new academies will bring the number of College and Career academies in Georgia to 52. More than 38,000 students are enrolled in academies throughout the state.
Gov. Brian Kemp at a recent jobs announcement (Photo by Beau Evans)
ATLANTA – A leading producer of electrostatic spray technology based on research conducted at the University of Georgia will expand its Georgia manufacturing operations, Gov. Brian Kemp announced Friday.
Sunrise, Fla.-based ByoPlanet International will create 250 jobs in Athens with a $7 million investment.
“It’s a pleasure to see ByoPlanet International continue to grow their footprint in Athens,” Kemp said. “ByoPlanet International is continuing to play a critical role in keeping schools, airlines, hospitals, and many other indoor spaces safe and sanitized so we can keep our economy open and protect lives and livelihoods as we fight COVID-19.”
Last spring, as Georgia and the rest of the nation began to feel the effects of the coronavirus pandemic, demand for ByoPlanet International’s disinfectant products grew sharply.
As a result, ByoPlanet contracted with The Classic Center in Athens to use additional space on a temporary basis while the facility was nearly vacant due to virus-related closures. The company also hired about 30 Classic Center employees who would have been furloughed otherwise due to the lack of arts and entertainment events at the venue.
“With all of the changes that have happened in the world since the onset of COVID-19, ByoPlanet has experienced unprecedented growth in our revenue, number of employees, and facility size and capacity,” said Peter Johansson, the company’s president and chief operating officer. “ByoPlanet has been present in Athens since 2010, and we see the area as the ideal location for our continued growth and development.”
In addition to maintaining their existing 5,500-square-foot facility near Athens-Ben Epps Airport, a new 40,800-square-foot building is expected to open by the end of this year.
As part of the expansion, ByoPlanet is planning to bring more than 200 advanced manufacturing, engineering, management, and office staff positions to the Athens area. The company has added more than 100 new positions since March.
“It has been wonderful to have ByoPlanet in Athens as their work has expanded, and we could not be happier to see them establish a permanent footprint in Athens,” Athens-Clarke County Mayor Kelly Girtz said.“It is exciting to see them utilize cutting-edge technology that creates healthy spaces as they create high-wage jobs at this critical time.”
For information on career opportunities with ByoPlanet International, go to https://byoplanet.com/.
ByoPlant is planning to introduce two new product lines next year.
The Georgia Department of Economic Development’s Global Commerce division partnered on the project in partnership with the Athens-Clarke County Unified Government Economic Development Department and Georgia Power.
ATLANTA – Atlanta-based The Home Depot Inc. has agreed to pay a $20.75 million fine for violating federal environmental rules for conducting home renovations involving lead paint.
A consent decree filed Thursday in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia requires the giant hardware retailer to implement a corporate-wide program to ensure that the contractors it hires are certified and trained to avoid spreading lead dust and paint chips during home renovation projects.
The fine is the highest civil penalty ever obtained for a settlement under the federal Toxic Substances Control Act.
“Today’s settlement will significantly reduce children’s exposure to lead paint hazards,”said Susan Bodine, assistant administrator for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Enforcement and Environmental Compliance.
“Home Depot will implement system-wide changes to ensure that contractors who perform work in homes constructed before 1978 are EPA-certified and follow lead-safe practices. EPA expects all renovation companies to ensure their contractors follow these critical laws that protect public health.”
“These were serious violations,” added Jonathan D. Brightbill, principal deputy assistant attorney general of the Justice Department’s Environmental and Natural Resources Division. “The stiff penalty Home Depot will pay reflects the importance of using certified firms and contractors in older home renovations.”
EPA discovered the alleged violations while investigating customer complaints about Home Depot renovations in five states that showed Home Depot subcontracted work to firms that in some cases did not use lead-safe work practices.
The agency then conducted a comprehensive review of Home Depot’s records of renovations performed throughout the country and found hundreds of instances in which the company sent uncertified firms to perform renovations that required certified and trained firms.
EPA also discovered cases where Home Depot failed to provide compliance documentation showing that specific contractors had been certified by EPA, were properly trained, and had used lead-safe work practices in home projects.
In the proposed consent decree, Home Depot also agreed to provide information about following lead-safe work practices to its professional and do-it-yourself customers in its stores, on its website, on YouTube, and in workshops.
“The Home Depot is committed to lead safety and safe work practices for our associates, partners and customers,” according to a statement Home Depot released Thursday. “That’s why the company expects all installers to not only do a great job, but also safely complete their work while following the required protocols and legal requirements including lead safety.”
Use of residential lead-based paint was banned in 1978 but still remains in many older homes and apartments across the country. Lead-dust hazards can occur when lead paint deteriorates or is disrupted during home renovation and remodeling activities.
Exposure to lead-based paint can cause a variety of health problems, from behavioral disorders and learning disabilities to seizures and death, putting young children at the greatest risk because their nervous systems are still developing.
The states of Utah, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island joined the federal government in the consent decree, which is subject to a 30-day public comment period and final court approval.
