Atlanta, GA — The first trial in the ‘Cop City’ RICO case began the morning of July 7 in Fulton County Superior Court, with defendant Ayla King returning to court for the first time since January 2024. However, proceedings quickly came to a halt following Judge Kevin Farmer’s declaration of a mistrial and the defense’s decision to appeal the mistrial. King’s case is being heard separately from the other 60 defendants after filing for a speedy trial on Oct. 30, 2023.

King is one of 61 people indicted by Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr in August 2023 on Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization (RICO) charges for their protest against “Cop City,” the $109 million police militarization facility that was built in Weelaunee Forest (otherwise known as the South River Forest) in unincorporated DeKalb County near Atlanta. More than 40 people, including King, have also been charged under Georgia’s domestic terrorism laws for alleged actions related to the Defend the Atlanta Forest/Stop Cop City movement. 

The facility was initially proposed in June 2021 and a movement formed to oppose it. Following the police killing of 26-year-old climate activist Manuel “Tortuguita” Paez Terán in January 2023, the movement grew to a global scale. Now, over 70 police training facilities are being planned, expanded, or built across the U.S., and many communities are mobilizing in their efforts to halt their construction.

Atlanta’s “Cop City” facility officially opened on April 29.

Unicorn Riot Coverage of the Movement to Stop ‘Cop City’

Surinder Chadha-Jiminez, King’s attorney, filed a motion (pdf) to dismiss in January 2024, arguing that King’s right to both a speedy and public trial were violated under Georgia law. Following jury selection on Dec. 13, 2023, Judge Kimberly Adams set the first day of arguments for Jan. 10, 2024, after the holiday break. (Adams is no longer presiding over the case as she has since been moved to family court.) Chadha-Jiminez argued that the delay between jury selection and the commencement of the trial itself constituted a violation of his client’s right to a speedy trial. 

Additionally, Chadha-Jiminez claimed that Adams violated King’s right to a public trial when she improperly barred both the public and the media from the courtroom during jury selection. 

In October 2024, the Georgia Court of Appeals found that King’s right to a speedy trial was not violated, but it ordered a new jury to be empaneled in light of Judge Adams’ failure to produce a written order when she closed the courtroom during the previous jury selection proceedings. The appeals court remanded King’s case back to Fulton County, and ordered a mistrial. The defense appealed (pdf) the finding of a mistrial to the Georgia Supreme Court, which declined to hear the case in May 2025.    

Judge Farmer formally declared the mistrial on July 7 and dismissed the jury selected in December 2023; this decision is being appealed by King’s defense. Should that appeal fail, the state intends to continue with a new trial in fall 2025.

Chadha-Jiminez expressed frustration with the mistrial and the selection of a new jury during a statement to the media outside the courthouse last week.

“The Court of Appeals said [that], ‘because the courtroom was closed, you have to start over,’” he explained. “We said, ‘No’ … We want an open, public trial, but more than that, I want this jury. Those were our jurors.”

Chadha-Jiminez added that a new trial would bring about issues of double jeopardy for his client, which he says is another basis for his upcoming appeal of the mistrial.

“We’re appealing a retrial on the grounds of statutory double jeopardy,” he said during last week’s press statement. “My client has already been placed in jeopardy and this is not one of the very few exceptions, according to our reading of the law, where the state gets to do a do-over. Because they already had a chance to move forward and we said we want this jury and the state said no. The state wanted a mistrial.”

Meanwhile, Judge Farmer says he plans to move forward with trial proceedings for the other 60 individuals included in the massive August 2023 RICO indictment from the Georgia Attorney General’s Office. Details of the trial schedule have yet to be released, but in the meantime, defendants remain in limbo and severely impacted in their lives as the nearly two-year long case drags on with little to no traction.

Atlanta Solidarity Fund co-founder Marlon Kautz also spoke outside the courthouse following the mistrial declaration. Kautz and two other ASF organizers are included in the indictment, along with charity fraud charges. The three were also originally charged with money laundering, which were dropped last September.

“The reason we are all here is because the Georgia Attorney General, Chris Carr, decided it would be a great idea to bring a RICO indictment and terrorism charges against a political protest movement,” he said. “The purpose of political attacks like this is to make an example of activists. To make them fear being targeted, having their life put on hold for years. The disruption of trials like this is very real and has a chilling effect on people. Even people who aren’t on trial are affected by seeing the way political prosecutions like this cause so much pain for defendants.”

Aja Arnold is a journalist based in Atlanta, covering policing, the carceral system, and constructive media analysis. She is the founder of Atlanta-based news outlet, Mainline. Sam Barnes is a writer and researcher based in Atlanta, focusing on government accountability and transparency. They can be found on BlueSky ‪@samatl.bsky.social.

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