ATLANTA — Attorneys representing the family of Rayshard Brooks and two college students stunned with Tasers last year by Atlanta police officers emerged from a meeting Tuesday with Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis largely unmoved by the prosecutor’s argument that her office should be recused from both cases.
“Whether we agree with her or disagree with her doesn’t matter,” said lawyer Chris Stewart, who represents clients in each matter.
Stewart said the cases should move forward through the appointment of a special prosecutor by Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr. Willis’ requests for recusal have twice been denied by the attorney general, who said her stated conflicts of interest lie only with her predecessor, Paul Howard, who brought the criminal charges.
Brooks, 27, was fatally shot last June by former Atlanta police Officer Garrett Rolfe. Spelman College sophomore Taniyah Pilgrim and Morehouse College senior Messiah Young were arrested and stunned with Tasers for allegedly violating curfew last May.
Six Atlanta Police Department officers who used their Tasers on the HBCU students face charges including aggravated assault. Rolfe, who fired three shots at Brooks after the father of four aggressively resisted arrest and attempted to flee the scene, was charged with felony murder. Another officer on the scene, Devin Brosnan, was charged with aggravated assault and lesser offenses related to Brooks’ death.
Noah Pines, who represents Rolfe, seized upon the jurisdictional turf war Tuesday, filing a motion to dismiss the charges against his client.
“(W)ith no prosecutor to handle the case it might never be resolved,” Pines said in his motion. That is unfair to his client, he said, due to the “restrictive conditions” of his bond. Rolfe must wear an ankle monitor and abide by a court-imposed curfew.
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