Not Guilty - Atlanta 8

The Atlanta Eagle Eight - NOT GUILTY.



Atlanta municipal court judge, Cystal Gaines,   handed  not guilty verdicts to three men charged in connection to the raid on the Atlanta Eagle bar last year.  Charges against four other men were dropped during the trial that took place on Thursday.   Charges against one man remained in place because he failed to appear in court.

The  case,   which should never really have been bought, pretty much collapsed from the very start for the prosecution.     The Eagle Eight attorney, Alan Begner, said  the city’s case was “weak from the start” and was an effort to justify “heavy-handedness” on the part of the Atlanta Police Department,   “To me, this is less about a message than defending people wrongfully accused and it feels good.  You don’t always successfully defend people wrongly accused. We did this time and we had a judge who stood up for what was right.”

Judge Crystal Gaines said Atlanta  city police had  failed to produce evidence proving that men danced naked without permits or that the bar operators were running an unlicensed adult establishment,  which was the main basis of the charges bought against the men.   

The Police investigator in charge of the case,  detective  Bennie E. Bridges,  said one of the defendants dancing on top of the bar at the club just dressed in  bikini underwear.   The police officer said  "He was pulling down the front of his underwear and exposing himself.   Men would reach up and put money into the waistband"

However,   Bridges could not identify  all eight defendants in the court room,  which  prompting Alan Begner to push for dismissals.     Slowly,  one after another, Larry Gardner solicitor for the city agreed to the dismissals, until only three defendants were left.  They were Robert Kelley, co-owner of the bar,  dancers Leandro Apud and Tadareius Johnson.        Gardner argued that the dancer according to police were clad only in underwear had exposed themselves  "the same way money would be accepted in any other nude bar."

Begner produced eight witnesses who all contradicted the police,  the mix of bar employees and customers  said they saw no nude dancing at the bar that night.

Judge Gaines said the city had to overcome "all these witnesses" and prove beyond a reasonable doubt that nude dancing happened.

"I don't believe that the city has met that burden," she said.

© 2010 Copyright Jason Shaw