A former Georgia prosecutor who was charged with misconduct for her handling of Ahmaud Arbery’s murder was booked into jail.
According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, former Brunswick Judicial Circuit District Attorney Jackie Johnson, 49, turned herself in at the Glynn County jail Wednesday morning after a grand jury returned an indictment last week on a felony charge of violating her oath of office and a misdemeanor count of obstructing police.
She was released from the Glynn County Detention Center on a $10,000 bond, AJC reports.Â
The indictment alleges that Johnson used her position to discourage police from making arrests in Arbery’s killing. It says she violated her oath by “showing favor and affection” to Greg McMichael ,and “failing to treat Ahmaud Arbery and his family fairly and with dignity.” It also says she obstructed police by “directing that Travis McMichael should not be placed under arrest.”
Greg McMichael worked for Johnson in the district attorney’s office as an investigator before retiring in 2019. Phone records introduced in court show he called Johnson and left her a voicemail soon after the shooting, The Associated Press reports.
Johnson was the county’s top prosecutor when Arbery was fatally shot last year after Greg McMichael and his son Travis chased him in a pickup truck when they saw him running in their neighborhood just outside the port city of Brunswick. A neighbor, William “Roddie” Bryan, joined the chase and took cellphone video of Travis McMichael fatally shooting Arbery.
The McMichaels told police they suspected Arbery was a burglar and that they acted in self-defense.
No arrests were made in the shooting for more than two months. That changed when the video of the fatal encounter was leaked online, sparking a national outcry, and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation took over the case.
The McMichaels and Bryan were found guilty of multiple counts of murder on Wednesday. They now face a potential sentence of life in prison. The judge has not yet set a date for a sentencing hearing.
They are also expected to go on trial in February for other federal charges, including hate crimes and attempted kidnapping, according to The New York Times.
Johnson faces one to five years in prison if convicted of violating her oath of office. The obstruction charge is a misdemeanor, punishable by up to a year in jail, CBS News reports.
