Georgia defense lawyer obtains reversal of criminal conviction of Atlanta police officer
Last week, the Georgia Court of Appeals reversed the conviction of Arthur Tesler. Tesler was one of the Atlanta Police Officers involved in the botched drug raid, and tragic shooting death, of 92 year old Kathryn Johnston.
The Atlanta Journal Constitution has the story.
The court reversed Tesler's conviction because the DA's office failed to prove that Fulton County had jurisdiction over Tesler's false statements to the FBI. The FBI office where Tesler made those statements is in Dekalb County, not Fulton County.
According to Tesler's defense attorney, the DA in Fulton County rushed to indict the case without properly considering the venue problem.
Now that the state conviction has been overturned, Tesler will be sentenced only in federal court based on his guilty plea to federal charges. In the federal case, the government is expected to ask that Tesler receive 10 years in prison.
Our firm's criminal defense attorneys represented one of the police officers initially identified as a subject of the federal criminal investigation into this incident. Our client testified in front of a federal grand jury, but was not charged.
Tesler's sentencing in federal court may be the end of the criminal cases arising out of this tragedy, but there are several potential civil lawsuits that will no doubt be filed and keep this incident in the media for some time to come.
There have been changes made to the way police officers obtain and execute warrants as a result of this incident. We can only hope those changes will prevent another innocent person from being killed by police officers who were taking shortcuts and lying to cover up their mistakes.
