Posted on 04/30/2007 10:37:19 PM PDT by FreedomCalls
Feds detail woman's death, officers' plea
Published on: 04/27/07
According to federal documents released Thursday, these are the events that led to Kathryn Johnston's death and the steps the officers took to cover their tracks.
Three narcotics agents were trolling the streets near the Bluffs in northwest Atlanta, a known market for drugs, midday on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving.
Eventually they set their sights on some apartments on Lanier Street, usually fertile when narcotics agents are looking for arrests and seizures.
Gregg Junnier and another narcotics officer went inside the apartments around 2 p.m. while Jason Smith checked the woods. Smith found dozens of bags of marijuana — in baggies that were clear, blue or various other colors and packaged to sell. With no one connected to the pot, Smith stashed the bags in the trunk of the patrol car. A use was found for Smith's stash 90 minutes later: A phone tip led the three officers to a man in a "gold-colored jacket" who might be dealing. The man, identified as X in the documents but known as Fabian Sheats, spotted the cops and put something in his mouth. They found no drugs on Sheats, but came up with a use for the pot they found earlier.
They wanted information or they would arrest Sheats for dealing.
While Junnier called for a drug-sniffing dog, Smith planted some bags under a rock, which the K-9 unit found.
But if Sheats gave them something, he could walk.
Sheats pointed out 933 Neal St., the home of 92-year-old Kathryn Johnston. That, he claimed, is where he spotted a kilogram of cocaine when he was there to buy crack from a man named "Sam."
They needed someone to go inside, but Sheats would not do for their purposes because he was not a certified confidential informant.
So about 5:05 p.m. they reached out by telephone to Alex White to make an undercover buy for them. They had experience with White and he had proved to be a reliable snitch.
But White had no transportation and could not help.
Still, Smith, Junnier and the other officer, Arthur Tesler, according to the state's case, ran with the information. They fabricated all the right answers to persuade a magistrate to give them a no-knock search warrant.
By 6 p.m., they had the legal document they needed to break into Kathryn Johnston's house, and within 40 minutes they were prying off the burglar bars and using a ram to burst through the elderly woman's front door. It took about two minutes to get inside, which gave Johnston time to retrieve her rusty .38 revolver.
Tesler was at the back door when Junnier, Smith and the other narcotics officers crashed through the front.
Johnston got off one shot, the bullet missing her target and hitting a porch roof. The three narcotics officers answered with 39 bullets.
Five or six bullets hit the terrified woman. Authorities never figured out who fired the fatal bullet, the one that hit Johnston in the chest. Some pieces of the other bullets — friendly fire — hit Junnier and two other cops.
The officers handcuffed the mortally wounded woman and searched the house.
There was no Sam.
There were no drugs.
There were no cameras that the officers had claimed was the reason for the no-knock warrant.
Just Johnston, handcuffed and bleeding on her living room floor.
That is when the officers took it to another level. Three baggies of marijuana were retrieved from the trunk of the car and planted in Johnston's basement. The rest of the pot from the trunk was dropped down a sewage drain and disappeared.
The three began getting their stories straight.
The next day, one of them, allegedly Tesler, completed the required incident report in which he wrote that the officers went to the house because their informant had bought crack at the Neal Street address. And Smith turned in two bags of crack to support that claim.
They plotted how they would cover up the lie.
They tried to line up one of their regular informants, Alex White, the reliable snitch with the unreliable transportation.
The officers' story would be that they met with White at an abandoned carwash Nov. 21 and gave him $50 to make the buy from Neal Street.
To add credibility to their story, they actually paid White his usual $30 fee for information and explained to him how he was to say the scenario played out if asked. An unidentified store owner kicked in another $100 to entice White to go along with the play.
The three cops spoke several times, assuring each other of the story they would tell.
But Junnier was the first to break.
On Dec. 11, three weeks after the shooting, Junnier told the FBI it was all a lie.
No knock warrant which means they break down the door and/or windows and charge in. There's reference in the article to supposed cameras on the premises which the cops used to justify the no knock warrant.
Exactly all for what? It is not like cops, good or bad, can stop the trade in something people want. And who know if the guy they planted something by for the dogs to find really was a drug dealer or just some poor schmoe walking down the street.
That is my view, chickens need to be in another line of business. Being a cop, particularly a good honest cop is dangerous work. It is not a job for some chicken who is not willing to risk life or limb.
Exactly “SOP in the war on drugs.”
48,000 of the above is what we taxpayers will spend this year alone on this WOD’s. Money I think would be better spent in our War on Islamic fascism.
All you had to do was look at the woman that was killed. There is no way she shot like those cops claimed. It was very obvious to anyone that knows anything about guns.
We agree on the transfer of government spending to the WOT, or WOIF if you like, too.
Did the drug warriors leave the building with the “Rudy for President” contingent? I wonder if there is a correlation there.
Of course anyone would be ashamed to defend the police state acts in this case. And many people are in deep denial about the multitude of cases like this.
No knock warrants...secret courts...”sneak and peek” warrantless searchs...on and on. Land of the free? HA!
</rant>
And all other areas of law enforcement.
I remember this incident from the initial story back when but..WHOA!! They cuffed her and let her bleed out while they planted evidence??!
Does anyone know what these scumbags plead guilty to? .Some of the articles on the internets say it was voluntary manslaughter, others involuntary manslaughter (along with the violation of his oath of office, making false statements, criminal solicitation, and perjury).
From the article:
“An unidentified store owner kicked in another $100 to entice White to go along with the play.”
^^^^^ I Would love to know the story behind this gem.
These Atlanta cops were heros to several Freepers back in November but for some reason they are staying away from the most current threads as if it contained bird flu.
mornin, love the screenname!!!
How true. Planting evidence, covering up their own crimes, conspiracy. These cops are a disgrace.
SOP for cop machismo as well.
Because cops are special! They get to do all kinds of “special” stuff - like going 91 mph with flashy lights so a Governor can get to his planet-altering meeting with Don Imus and the RU B-Ball team.
/s
I have an idea, lets arm the citizens and DISarm the cops...or at least put speed governors (no pun intended) on their cars.
Well, they are cops.
This is an outrage, an absolute outrage. I find it particularly galling that they never figured out who fired the fatal bullet, in this age of ballistics (so much for the liberals’ treasured “ballistic fingerprint” scheme).
Vetias. 100%.
It's demographics. They type of person who WANTS to be a cop is in most cases NOT the kind of person YOU want to see as a cop. Especially if they are local.
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