Familiar Face in Brunswick DA Race

– Thursday, Feb. 8, 2024 –

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Good morning. In this week’s public safety newsletter, we’re reporting on a longtime, controversial prosecutor jumping in the race for Brunswick-area district attorney, the Georgia Supreme Court hearing for an ex-Glynn County Police chief and a controversial bail bill progressing through the statehouse.

Questions, comments or story ideas? You can reach me at jake.shore@thecurrentga.org.

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Controversial attorney to run for DA

A longtime prosecutor under former Brunswick-area district attorney Jackie Johnson, dogged for years by allegations he cheated to win in murder trials, filed paperwork to run for district attorney last week.

John B. Johnson, III (who is of no relation to the former DA) filed his declaration of intent to accept campaign contributions in a race to unseat the current Brunswick Judicial Circuit District Attorney Keith Higgins, according to documents filed with the state. Johnson is running as a Republican, as is Higgins.

Johnson said he was unprepared to describe the reasons for his candidacy, when reached by The Current on Wednesday afternoon. He said more would be public when his announcement “runs in the paper.” He did not provide more specifics about which paper or what date he would be explaining his rationale. The 79-year-old attorney left the DA’s office in 2021, after Higgins’ election, and went to work prosecuting misdemeanors in Glynn County State Court.

Both men previously worked under Jackie Johnson’s administration. The former DA is still awaiting trial on charges that she used her position to protect her former employee from being implicated in Ahmaud Arbery’s death in February 2020.

In multiple major cases during John Johnson’s 40-year career, the prosecutor withheld evidence from the defense — evidence which could have impacted verdicts, according to an investigation by the Atlanta Journal Constitution. In 2020, a judge tossed the murder conviction of a man accused of killing a couple in Camden County in 1984. Johnson hadn’t disclosed that the state’s star witness was to receive $12,000 in order to testify against the man and originally told the trial judge there was no compensation for witnesses, the AJC reported.

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Fmr. Glynn Chief appeals to justices

Today, a former Glynn County Police chief and his lawyer will try to convince Georgia Supreme Court justices that the ex-chief can’t be held criminally liable for his agency’s corrupt drug unit.

Judges will consider arguments from John Powell’s lawyer that the criminal allegations have lingered for years and the delay has violated his speedy trial rights.

Powell, a Floridian whose 37-year policing career spanned multiple states while courting controversy with every stop, faces up to 20 years in prison on four counts of violating his oath of office as chief in Glynn. The central allegations against him, as of his second indictment in August 2021, say he failed to take any action when notified of misconduct by officers at the department’s drug unit, known as GBNET.

The unit was a collaboration between Brunswick and Glynn County cops and was dissolved by Powell in 2019, following revelations of an officer who had sexual relationships with two informants — that officer’s record has since been cleared and expunged. Two other GBNET superiors have pleaded guilty to covering up the misconduct and received expungements on the condition they don’t work in Georgia policing.

But Powell and his top deputy, Brian Scott, are taking a final shot at getting the charges against them dismissed. Powell’s attorney has argued the chief is being prosecuted over what is essentially a human resources issue.

The oral arguments should start close to 10:40 a.m. (one case is slated to go before Powell’s and each case is allotted 40 minutes). You can watch the hearing at this link.

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Bail bill progresses

A controversial bill that increases the amount of crimes requiring bail money to get out of jail passed the Georgia House on Tuesday and now heads to Gov. Brian Kemp’s desk.

Under the measure, misdemeanor offenses like criminal trespass, theft and forgery would require a monetary or property bond in order to secure their release from jail before trial.

Bail bills such as this have been controversial, as researchers have found that forcing people to pay to get out of jail leads to worse outcomes for poorer defendants. State Republicans say the measure is meant to target repeat offenders and repudiate a movement in other states to limit or end cash bail.

Republicans largely voted in favor of the bill, with Democrats against. All Coastal Georgia Republicans in House and Senate voted in favor of the measure.

Curiously, two Coastal Georgia Democrats did not cast a vote on the bill: Sen. Derek Mallow and Rep. Carl Gilliard. Fellow Democrats from Coastal Georgia, Reps. Anne Allen Westbrook, Edna Jackson and Al Williams, voted against it.

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