A courtroom of defense attorneys with their clients and their supporters who have been waiting for their day in court for years, some of them while locked in cells, sat ready Thursday, April 21, for what was supposed to result in some forward movement in their cases.
They’re still waiting.
Judge Jesse Stone faced a full Richmond County Superior Court courtroom Thursday. There was a full calendar of cases set for status conferences at which time, generally, the prosecutor lays out the state cases, puts the maximum possible punishment on the record, and offers up a plea negotiation if there is one. The defense can then make a counter claim on the evidence, propose another possible resolution to the case or accept the prosecutor’s plea offer.
But such a hearing requires both sides to be present, and no one from the prosecution’s side showed up, not even in the one case in which Attorney General Christopher Carr finally found an attorney willing to take on a massive case against alleged members of the Loyalty Over Everything gang.
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Some of the allegations in the gang case date back to 2013, said defense attorney Greg Leopard. In 2017 when the indictment was returned, there was grumbling about the long delay’s detrimental effect on the defense. Now, the alleged illegal conduct is nearly 10 years old.
Attorney William Fleming counted off all the dates he and his client have appeared in court over and over for nothing because there is no one on the other side. Meanwhile his client lost a career in the Navy, and she can’t get another job because of the pending changes, Fleming said. And insult to injury, he can’t find any mention of her name let along facts against her in the thousands of pages of discovery he has seen, Fleming said.
Defense attorney Jacque Hawk was way past frustration. His client, Kevin Hanna, has been repeatedly denied bond in a case in which the evidence is bogus, but he can’t get near a jury because the opposing chair remains empty and has been for nearly two years that Carr’s been required to appoint a prosecutor, Hawk said.
“He needs to do his job. J.O.B,” Hawk said.
Stone’s calendar clerk sent notice to the Attorney General’s Office, but not to the attorney who agreed to take on the prosecution task in the gang case. Former Athens’ prosecutor Brian Patterson, who is now in private practice, apologized to Stone via Zoom. He wasn’t told of Thursday’s hearing, and he just retrieved three banker boxes full of materials from the Augusta district attorney’s office April 1. He asked Stone for 30 days to review and digest the material before meeting with attorneys to go over the specific facts against each defendant.
With some sense of possible movement, the temperature in the room decreased, until the next case was call. And the next, and so on for nine other people whose charges include murder, aggravated child molestation, vote buying and, in one case, a sheriff’s officer accused of aggravated assault for allegedly slugging another deputy with a flashlight.
In those cases, the attorney general hasn’t yet appointed anyone as a special prosecutor.
Although logistics delayed some of the pending cases, such as the gang case, all of the cases have been in the wind since District Attorney Jared Williams started the job he won in the November 2020 election.
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Before running for the office, he worked with veteran defense attorney Jacque Hawk who has a large private practice. Because of his potential connection with those people, Williams recused himself and notified the attorney general of his conflict and the need appoint special prosecutors.
Hearing the complaints, Carr’s office countered that it was tasked with an unprecedented situation. Williams sent Carr hundreds of pages for 68 cases with 136 defendants, and Williams isn’t the only prosecutor to request special prosecutor assignments. The attorney general cannot order replacement prosecutors, only ask, but it is his responsibility.
Thursday, the judge also hit the limit of patience. He wrote to the attorney general on Feb. 1 explaining the situation of pending cases and the need to have the state represented, Stone said. With defense attorneys requesting the dismissal of cases, his only option was to order the attorney general to court, Stone said.
While the prosecutor now assigned to the massive gang case got 30 days to work on the cases and meet with defense attorneys, Stone reset the other cases for May 26.
Sandy Hodson is a staff reporter covering courts for The Augusta Press. Reach her at sandy@theaugustapress.com.
