ATLANTA — The potential criminal indictment of former President Donald Trump may be the biggest case in Fulton County history, but it is far from the first high profile case for the county prosecutors.
One of the most recent high profile cases put Fani Willis in the spotlight. In 2014, Willis was an assistant in the Fulton County District Attorney’s Office. She was the lead prosecutor on the Atlanta Public Schools Cheating Trial, one that drew national attention and resulted in sweeping changes in Georgia classrooms.
Now, Willis is leading the charge in the case against the former president.
“To put a case like that together when you have so many players and so many different allegations kind of shows her experience and the fact that she’s not afraid to try high profile cases by any means,” said former Fulton County prosecutor Melissa Redmon of the APS trial.
Among the defendants who have appeared in a Fulton County Courtroom is Marcus Wayne Chenault, who was convicted in 1974 of killing the mother of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., as she played the organ during services at Ebenezer Baptist Church.
There’s Wayne Williams, the prime suspect in the Atlanta Child Murders. There is Ray Lewis, the pro football star who pleaded guilty to obstruction in connection to a double murder during Super Bowl weekend in Atlanta in 2000. Brian Nichols is now serving a life sentence for killing four people, including a Superior Court Judge who was gunned down inside the Fulton County Courthouse.
And then, there’s the APS case. It was the longest criminal trial in Georgia history, lasting eight months.
Clint Rucker was one of the top prosecutors in the Fulton County D.A.’s office at the time and was in the courtroom right beside Willis.
“There were fundamental changes with respect to the processes and the procedures going forward with respect to standardized testing and the way that education is pursued now,” Rucker said.
Rucker said the APS case helped prepare Fani Willis for the investigation into Donald Trump.
“Oh, the toughness,” Rucker said. “The toughness in the face of criticism, the toughness in the face of controversy. Make no mistake about it, this case (the Trump investigation) no matter what the grand jury decides to do, it’s one of epic historical proportion.”
It will likely be the most epic case ever in a county with a long history of high profile cases.