ATLANTA — A judge's decision to throw out the indictments of six Fulton County jailers in the 2018 death of Antonio May has been overturned by the Georgia Supreme Court.
The six deputies - Arron Cook, Guito Dela Cruz, Omar Jackson, Jason Roache, Kenesia Strowder and William Whitaker - were indicted in 2021 by Fulton County DA Fani Willis. They were accused by family attorneys of repeatedly tasing May, who'd gone to jail after a misdemeanor trespassing arrest in the midst of what his family said was a mental health crisis, as well as beating him and leaving him in a pool of his own blood.
A Fulton County decision, however, ruled that they were not properly allowed a chance to be heard before the grand jury before their indictment under Georgia law that allows for such appearances by peace officers. The deputies argued they met the definition of peace officer in their capacity.
The Supreme Court has now concluded they "do not meet the definition of a peace officer and, therefore, are not entitled to the pre-indictment protections afforded by Georgia Code § 17-7-52."
A unanimous opinion by Justice Charles J. Bethel noted that "while it is true that the defendants’ work may have benefited the public peace, a tangential benefit to the public peace is not synonymous with a duty to maintain the peace within the community as a whole."
DA Willis had disputed the lower court decision at the time the indictments were thrown out.
"None of the jailers were POST certified peace officers with arrest powers before or at the time of May's death, and attempted to proffer that evidence," a motion contesting the decision argued.
Justice Bethel highlighted how the lower court decision "even acknowledged... that the defendants do not maintain 'the public order traditionally conceived of.'"
"Indeed, any authority the defendants may exercise is constrained to a limited population of inmates and, perhaps, to certain members of the general public who voluntarily enter the jail’s boundaries via its controlled access points," Bethel wrote. "...The defendants’ duties instead are primarily related to maintaining order at the Fulton County Jail and to supervising the inmates and, therefore, were simply insufficient to establish that the defendants owed a general duty to maintain the public peace within the community at large."
The justice concluded: "Thus, because the defendants’ primary duty of supervising and controlling a defined population of inmates was markedly limited in comparison to a traditional peace officer’s and because they had no duty to maintain the public peace in a general sense, we conclude that the trial court erred by deeming them peace officers under OCGA § 17-7-52."
It's not clear yet when the case will next proceed forward with the indictments reinstated.