Georgia prosecutors on Tuesday dropped all 15 counts of money laundering that were levied against three Atlanta organizers accused of misusing a bail fund to aid violent protests against the city’s proposed police and fire training center, the Associated Press reports. Atlanta Solidarity Fund leaders Marlon Kautz, Adele MacLean and Savannah Patterson still face racketeering charges, along with 58 others who were indicted last year following a years-long investigation into the “Stop Cop City” movement. Prosecutors have portrayed the decentralized movement as being led by “militant anarchists” hell-bent on radicalizing supporters and halting the construction of the facility by any means necessary, including arson. The Atlanta Solidarity Fund has provided bail money and helped find attorneys for arrested protesters. Prosecutors said the three defendants funneled money that was supposed to be for charitable causes and instead used it to reimburse protesters who spent months camping in the South River Forest, near the site of the facility in DeKalb County, just outside Atlanta.
Transactions that prompted the 15 counts of money laundering included $93.04 for “camping supplies” and $12.52 for “forest kitchen materials,” according to the indictment. But just as a motions hearing was about to start Tuesday, Deputy Attorney General John Fowler told Fulton County Judge Kimberly Esmond Adams that he would be filing paperwork to dismiss the 15 counts. A spokesperson for Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr did not say why the money laundering charges were dropped but emphasized that the racketeering charges remain. Kristen Novay, the attorney for Patterson, applauded the decision. “The entire indictment is defective, but with those particular counts, I think it is a wise move for a seasoned prosecutor to say, ‘This isn’t worth it,’” Novay told The Associated Press. “Sometimes the hardest call as a prosecutor is to not go for something.” Demonstrators and civil rights organizations have condemned the racketeering indictment and accused Carr, a Republican, of levying heavy-handed charges to try to silence a movement that has galvanized environmentalists and anti-police protesters across the country. Opponents say the 85-acre, $110-million facility will worsen police militarization and harm the environment in a poor, majority-Black neighborhood.
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