Family of Grandmother Slain in Botched Police Raid Receives $4.9 Million
Four years after 92-year-old Kathryn Johnston was shot and killed by Atlanta narcotics officers who falsified evidence before and after a completely unwarranted raid on her home, the city of Atlanta has announced it will pay a $4.9 million settlement to her family.
In November 2006, officers conducted a “no knock” raid on Johnston’s home based on bogus information from an informant who said he had purchased drugs there. (After the raid, the informant told a local news station that he had never even been to Johnston’s home, and that police asked him to fabricate the story after the shooting.)
Johnston, who lived alone, apparently mistook the plainclothes officers for intruders and, according to the prosecutor trying the officers, fired one shot through the door and hit nothing. The police responded, firing 39 shots, killing Johnston and apparently wounding three of their own.
Investigators did not find any evidence that drugs were being sold in the apartment. In an apparent attempt to fabricate a cover story, one of the officers, J.R. Smith, planted three bags of marijuana in the home, according to Assistant U.S. Attorney Yonette Sam-Buchanan.
The raid made national headlines, and the three officers involved eventually plead guilty to federal charges including conspiracy, voluntary manslaughter and making false statements. They are currently serving sentences in federal prison.
“The resolution of this case is an important step in the healing process for the city and its residents,” Atlanta’s mayor, Kasim Reed said in a statement yesterday. “As a result of the incident, several police officers were indicted in federal and state court on charges and were later convicted and sentenced for their actions. In addition, the narcotics unit of the Atlanta Police Department was completely reorganized, which included changes in policy and personnel.”
Unfortunately, raids like the one on Kathryn Johnston’s home continue to occur every day in places all over the country. Some compensation for Johnston’s family is a good start to repairing the damage, but a much more appropriate legacy for this highly-publicized tragedy would be for officials nationwide to realize that in a free society, armed officers shouldn’t be sent on missions to break down doors and potentially use violence in order to enforce nonviolent drug offenses.
Tagged with: Atlanta and J.R. Smith and Kasim Reed and Kathryn Johnson and raid by the author
18 comments
MPP,
Please show support for proposition 19. We need the entire community to come together for this. Those of us that do not profit from either the legal or illegal production and sale are very much in support of a proposition that will reduce income for the cartels, require vendors to check id, potentially generate a good deal of taxable income, and keep non-violent drug offenders out of prison.
Please show your support and help rally the voters.
There’s a good bit of money that’s not going into their pensions and other folks’ pensions because they had to pay out $4.9 million. If it weren’t for assholes like Bob Barr and Newt Gingrich Georgia might already be the California of the South. They’re good at talking shit, but they don’t actually know how to do anything that creates jobs. They got rich publishing books and cashing in on the speech/lecture circuit. Do they actually own any businesses that cut checks for employees other than their office staff? Lawyer, professor, whatever, they’re talkers and bullshitters.
Are you implying that teachers/professors don’t do something that positively affects the job market?! I don’t support Barr or Gingrich in the least…but calling professors talkers and b.s.-ers is ignorant and cruel. Most professors get paid very, very poorly and do the work to try to educate and train the next generation. Its for the love of teaching, researching, and bettering the lives of students. You should be careful damning an entire noble profession just because you don’t like a politician.
Christian Olson 1, I agree: Let’s get out the vote!
I think one of the best things we can do right now is work on voter registration so that people will be ready to vote in November (they’ve got to register now or they will not be allowed to vote later). People can google their state name and “voter registration” to find their own state’s voter registration process.
Some info for California:
h t t p s://w w w .sos.ca.gov/nvrc/fedform/
Just take the spaces out of the h t t p s:// w w w part in order to activate the URL. The link will take you to a voter registration form that you can print and mail.
California citizens can vote by mail:
h t t p://w w w .sos.ca.gov/elections/vote-by-mail/pdf/fill-in-vote-by-mail-app-instruct.pdf
Read about voting while in college in California:
http://www.brennancenter.org/studentvoting/states/california
Let’s keep spreading the word and get out the VOTE!
And as a side note: If there’s anybody out there with the talent and resources to create it, a made-for-TV (or YouTube) documentary, “In Cold Blood: The Kathryn Johnston Story,” could be a compelling and informative video, just waiting for the right person to make it. Anybody out there got the skills and the will?
They should make a movie about the Kathryn Johnston Story.
No, you read into it too much. Nothing of the sort was implied. I mean Gingrich and Barr. Talkers and bullshitters transcend. Can it with playing the martyr and guard your tenure.
Well we agree on those two.
I’ve noticed a trend of piling on of charges lately. Seems like these officers also could have/should have been charged with: breaking and entering, possession and delivery of a controlled substance (though the so-called controlled substances law is probably unconstitutional and the fact that these sorts of abuses are happening all too regularly goes to prove that point), obstruction of justice, conduct unbecoming an officer, failure to uphold their oath of office, tresspass, disturbing the peace…
What I don’t understand is, what is the logic behind a “No knock” raid. I thought law enforcement officers were required to identify themselves as such. This prevents law abiding people from shooting at them when they try to knock down their door. This is the kind of behavior that our govt likes to condemn when officials in other countries do it, and calls it a human rights violation. This is nothing more than Gestapo tactics. Hypocracy is alive and well in the US.
Those cops are bigger criminals than anyone they ever went after. Also you have to admit, it’s hilarious that the cops wounded 3 of their own while shooting back at one elderly woman who only fired one shot, probably as a warning shot to what she thought were intruders. Talk about incompetence.
If this woman HAD been a crack dealer this would still be manslaughter. The difference is that no one would flinch. ~60% of all police corruption is related to drugs.
Drug prohibition is a war on American citizens, and a no knock drug warrant is a license to kill. Judges are handing them out like candy to LEO’s who justify any criminality in the name of ‘winning the war.’ A person has a right to defend themselves from attack in their own home, even when that person is a drug dealer. All it would have taken to save this woman, and many other people’s lives is to knock and shout POLICE! SEARCH WARRANT! before kicking down the door.
This is the third news story I’ve read in the last month about no-knock drug warrants gone wrong. One incident led to the killing of a dog, and the other to the shooting of a sixty yr old blind woman in 3 times in the lung. These cases only get questioned if the person/thing to be seized is not found. In most cases of misconduct, LEOs are given paid leave, and are allowed to return to violating rights just as soon as some justification can be trumped up.
Welcome to the Police State.
Slavery -> Jim Crow -> Drug Prohibition.
Never, EVER, consent to any search by any LEO.
Is it protocal to bring your own cannabis On a raid just in case the people they are violating are not in posession. I wonder how many people are sitting in prison because they got the wrong house and just threw down a bag of weed or somthing stronger just to cover there own ass. It’s no wonder most people fear the police rather than see them as someone trying to help. This is disgusting. Why were these guys not charged with posession and delivery? We would have been. Correct me if I’m wrong but being in posession of drugs and a weapon is a mandatory sentence on the federal level. Little alone mudering someone at the same time. Unbelievable!!
[...] Police need to rethink these raids. They’re exciting and all, but they carry a high risk. Mike Meno at MPP: Four years after 92-year-old Kathryn Johnston was shot and killed by Atlanta narcotics officers [...]
i begged mpp to stop endorsing obama early in the primary phase of the election. i told them he’s a liar and a fraud, but they kept pushing his sorry butt on an unsuspecting public. that’s when i quit endorsing them. ron paul was the only candidate who has pushed for years to stop this war on our own cicitzens. it’s a war that has not and will not be won and which destroys lives and families. great job mpp. NOT!!!!
@hms-one stated: 60% of all police corruption is drug-related. I totally agree with that figure, only I think it should be put this way: 60% of all police corruption is PROHIBITION related.
The general public is constantly flummoxed by the idea that drugs are the problem. Drugs aren’t the problem. Prohibition is.
So,lets start referring to all those street-corner deals gone bad, and back-alley shootings as “prohibition-related violence.”
But most importantly, let’s toss out the rubric War on Drugs, and start calling it what it really is “The Prohibition War.”
When Michele Leonhart becomes the DEA Administrator, the DEA will no longer be responsible to botched up raids, because everyone is a criminal under Marijuana Prohibition whether or not drugs are found.
I had a group of Christians working with Christian Cops, doing sneak and peek, had me followed by the FBI—- The Stalking Harassment went on for 11years. That was in Seattle Washington, I was living in Seattle Housing Authority. Harvard Court building, their intent was my death.
Leave a Comment