Georgia prosecutors drop all 15 counts of money laundering against 3 'Cop City' activists

ATLANTA (AP) — Georgia prosecutors on Tuesday dropped all 15 counts of money laundering that were levied against three Atlanta organizers accused of misusing a bail fund to aid violent protests against the city’s proposed police and fire training center.

Atlanta Solidarity Fund leaders Marlon Kautz, Adele MacLean and Savannah Patterson still face racketeering charges, along with 58 others who were indicted last year following a yearslong investigation into the “Stop Cop City” movement. Prosecutors have portrayed the decentralized movement as being led by “militant anarchists” hell-bent on radicalizing supporters and halting the construction of the facility by any means necessary, including arson.

At the center of the case is the Atlanta Solidarity Fund, which has provided bail money and helped find attorneys for arrested protesters. Prosecutors said the three defendants funneled money that was supposed to be for charitable causes and instead used it to reimburse protesters who spent months camping in the South River Forest, near the site of the facility in DeKalb County, just outside Atlanta.

Transactions that prompted the 15 counts of money laundering included $93.04 for “camping supplies” and $12.52 for “forest kitchen materials,” according to the indictment.

But just as a motions hearing was about to start Tuesday, Deputy Attorney General John Fowler told Fulton County Judge Kimberly Esmond Adams that he would be filing paperwork to dismiss the 15 counts. A spokesperson for Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr did not say why the money laundering charges were dropped but emphasized that the racketeering charges remain.

Kristen Novay, the attorney for Patterson, applauded the decision.

“The entire indictment is defective, but with those particular counts, I think it is a wise move for a seasoned prosecutor to say, ‘This isn’t worth it,'” Novay told The Associated Press. “Sometimes the hardest call as a prosecutor is to not go for something.”

Demonstrators and civil rights organizations have condemned the racketeering indictment and accused Carr, a Republican, of levying heavy-handed charges to try to silence a movement that has galvanized environmentalists and anti-police protesters across the country. Opponents say the 85-acre, $110-million facility will worsen police militarization and harm the environment in a poor, majority-Black neighborhood.

Despite various attacks against the site and contractors’ equipment over the past couple of years, construction on the training center has continued, and officials say they are planning to hold a ribbon-cutting ceremony in December. Supporters say the city must replace outdated facilities and that it is key to better train officers to avoid improper use of force.

Meanwhile, tens of thousands of signed petitions to let voters weigh in on the project have spent the past 12 months sitting untouched in boxes as officials await a court ruling on whether nonresidents were wrongly allowed to collect signatures. City officials are hoping the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals will kill the petition drive either because it is illegal under state law or because organizers missed their original deadline. The court, which heard arguments in December, has yet to issue its ruling.

Outrage over the stalled referendum continued Monday, when dozens of protesters testified in front of the Atlanta City Council and then hurled hundreds of pingpong balls throughout the chamber as they chanted, “You have dropped the ball.”

Efforts to prosecute those responsible for numerous violent “Stop Cop City” protests have hit multiple stumbling blocks. Last year, DeKalb County District Attorney Sherry Boston, a Democrat, announced she would withdraw from criminal cases tied to the protests, citing disagreements with Carr. And in July, Judge Esmond Adams castigated prosecutors for committing “gross negligence” for mishandling confidential email conversations that Kautz, MacLean and Patterson had with their attorneys, though Esmond Adams denied defense attorneys' motion to dismiss the case on those grounds.

Ping pong balls litter the floor after opponents of the under-construction law enforcement training center known to some as Cop City disrupted the City Council meeting at City Hall in Atlanta on Monday, Sept. 16, 2024. (Arvin Temkar/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP)

Opponents of the under-construction law enforcement training center known to some as Cop City disrupt the City Council meeting at City Hall in Atlanta on Monday, Sept. 16, 2024. (Arvin Temkar/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP)

Opponents of the under-construction law enforcement training center known to some as Cop City disrupt the City Council meeting at City Hall in Atlanta on Monday, Sept. 16, 2024. (Arvin Temkar/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP)

Opponents of an under-construction law enforcement training center known to some as "Cop City," protest at City Hall in Atlanta on Monday, Sept. 16, 2024. (Arvin Temkar/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP)

Ping pong balls litter the floor after opponents of the under-construction law enforcement training center known to some as Cop City disrupted the City Council meeting at City Hall in Atlanta on Monday, Sept. 16, 2024. (Arvin Temkar/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP)

Opponents of the under-construction law enforcement training center known to some as "Cop City" disrupt the City Council meeting at City Hall in Atlanta, Monday, Sept. 16, 2024. (Arvin Temkar/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP)

Ping pong balls litter the floor after opponents of the under-construction law enforcement training center known to some as Cop City disrupted the City Council meeting at City Hall in Atlanta on Monday, Sept. 16, 2024. (Arvin Temkar/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP)

Opponents of an under-construction law enforcement training center that critics call "Cop City," protest at City Hall in Atlanta, Monday, Sept. 16, 2024. (Arvin Temkar/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP)

Muhammad Ali. Evander Holyfield. Lennox Lewis.

Three boxers from an elite club of heavyweight greats to have been three-time world champions.

Anthony Joshua can put his name on that exclusive list by disposing of a British rival who sees himself as the future of the sport’s marquee category.

He can do it on quite the stage, too.

Joshua, a darling of British boxing ever since winning Olympic gold at the London Games in 2012, is looking to complete his late-career rebuild by beating Daniel Dubois to reclaim the IBF belt in front of around 96,000 fans at Wembley Stadium in London on Saturday.

It is one of the biggest crowds for any British sporting event — and that’s something Joshua is used to after selling out the UK’s biggest stadia for years. Indeed, it was at Wembley where he produced his greatest performance in defeating Wladimir Klitschko in epic fashion in 2017 to become a two-belt world champ.

As for the 27-year-old Dubois, a somewhat accidental world champion after taking the IBF crown vacated by Oleksandr Usyk, this is fairly new territory. It’s his first title defense and second world championship fight — Joshua has had 12 of them, of which 10 have been for unified titles — as he looks to establish his name atop the heavyweight scene.

A win for Dubois (21-2, with 20 KOs) and it will be seen as a definitive changing of the guard. The pretender will then be the big man in town, with huge riches in the offing in potential future fights against Usyk or Tyson Fury, who meet in a rematch on Dec. 21 in Saudi Arabia for Usyk’s WBA, WBC and IBO heavyweight belts.

For Joshua (28-3, with 25 KOs), it would mean climbing the mountain once again — or even hanging up his gloves.

“I’ve been to the well,” Joshua said. “Dan’s fighting someone who is willing to die in there.”

The 34-year-old from Watford, just outside London, faced a career reset after losing back-to-back fights against Usyk, soon after his first pro defeat — a shocker to Andy Ruiz Jr. in 2019.

Joshua got rid of his long-time trainer, set up camps in the U.S. instead of England, and tried to change his strategy. He had lost twice to Usyk, a smaller man, and it made him realize boxing is as much about skill and ring craft as power and brutality.

The rebuild has seen him win four straight fights — against Jermaine Franklin, Robert Helenius, Otto Wallin and then former UFC champion Francis Ngannou — and each performance has been better than the last.

His devastating punching power is still there, too. Just ask Ngannou, who was knocked out cold in the second round with an unblocked right hand.

Questions are still being asked of Joshua, however. Does he belong back in the first tier of the heavyweights? Will that long-awaited fight with Fury — trailed for almost a decade now — ever happen?

“Everything I’ve done in the past, we have to draw a line (through) because I can’t take that with me on Saturday night,” Joshua said. “In that moment, that’s all that matters.”

Dubois, nicknamed “Dynamite,” told The Associated Press this week he is looking to legitimize his status as the newest world heavyweight champion with what would be the biggest win of his career. He only gained the IBF belt in late-June after Usyk relinquished it, to no longer be undisputed champ.

“I need to show them on the night what I’m all about and then make the world respect me,” Dubois told the AP, “and make them put some respect to my name.”

Joshua is a bigger puncher and Dubois’ reputation might still be wounded after he took a knee and was counted out against another Brit, Joe Joyce, in 2020 for his first loss.

Dubois’ loss to Usyk in Wroclaw, Poland, is his only experience of big-time boxing and he said it made him grow “from a boy to a man.”

Joshua made that leap a long time ago and quickly became a national treasure, unbeaten for his first six years as a pro — three of them as a world champion — and establish an aura of invincibility.

After a chastening few years, he can reach those heights again on Saturday when the challenger, unusually, will start as the favorite.

AP Sports Writer Ken Maguire contributed to this story.

AP sports: https://apnews.com/sports

British boxer Daniel Dubois arrives at the Odeon Luxe Leicester Square, London, Tuesday Sept.17, 2024. (Bradley Collyer/PA via AP)

British boxer Daniel Dubois arrives at the Odeon Luxe Leicester Square, London, Tuesday Sept.17, 2024. (Bradley Collyer/PA via AP)

FILE - Britain's Daniel Dubois, left, and Ukraine's Oleksandr Usyk during their world heavyweight title fight at Tarczynski Arena in Wroclaw, Poland, Saturday, Aug. 26, 2023. (AP Photo/Czarek Sokolowski, file)

British boxer Anthony Joshua arrives at the Odeon Luxe Leicester Square, London, Tuesday Sept.17, 2024. (Bradley Collyer/PA via AP)

FILE - British former world champion Anthony Joshua, right, and MMA fighter Francis Ngannou fight during the heavyweight boxing showdown at Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Saturday, March 9, 2024. (AP Photo, file)

British boxer Anthony Joshua arrives at the Odeon Luxe Leicester Square, London, Tuesday Sept.17, 2024. (Bradley Collyer/PA via AP)