ATLANTA, Ga. (Atlanta News First) — Georgia’s attorney general is appealing a Fulton County Superior Court ruling that dismissed racketeering charges against 61 people related to the controversial Atlanta Public Safety Training Center.

Attorney General Chris Carr - who is running for Georgia’s GOP gubernatorial nomination this spring - has filed an immediate appeal to continue with the full prosecution.

“We took action to ensure that groups like Antifa and other anarchists who engaged in domestic terrorism were held accountable,” Carr said Monday. “We promised to use all available resources to ensure agents of violence and chaos were fully punished, and that’s exactly what we’re doing.”

In late December, Fulton County Superior Court Judge Kevin Farmer ruled Carr did not have the authority to level charges related to the state’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act.

Carr had brought charges against 61 co-defendants under Georgia’s RICO Act. When he did, it set the stage for the largest criminal racketeering case in U.S. history.

Farmer’s order dismissed the racketeering charges Carr was seeking to prosecute.

“If the AG had sought and received permission from the governor to bring RICO charges, the check on the division of powers would be satisfied,” Farmer’s ruling said. “And that permission may still be sought and the charges brought properly, but they were not in this case.”

Farmer agreed with defense attorneys, saying only local district attorneys can bring racketeering charges, not the state’s attorney general.

Almost two years ago, Carr filed charges against 61 people arrested during protests over the facility, which critics derisively call “Cop City.”

The facility, begun during one-term former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms’ administration, became a flashpoint for controversy and violence. Bottoms is also a Democratic hopeful in Georgia’s nationally watched governor’s race.

Supporters said the project is needed to replace outdated facilities and boost officers’ morale. Opponents said it will be a training ground for a militarized police force, and its construction has worsened environmental damage in a poor, majority-Black area.

At times, the demonstrations turned violent, such as in January 2023, when Manuel Esteban Paez Terán was fatally shot by state troopers while authorities cleared a protest encampment.

In Carr’s indictment, protesters were accused of everything from setting construction equipment on fire to money laundering in their protest of the training center, which opened last year.

Carr’s appeal is now focusing on alleged harm to state employees and damages to property, “including the Department of Public Safety, the University System of Georgia, Department of Juvenile Justice, and Department of Transportation,” the appeal said.

You can read the appeal below:

“The first known incident attributed to [Defending the Atlanta Forest] involved a defendant throwing a Molotov cocktail into the headquarters of the Department of Public Safety, thus causing a fire and sending multiple state employees to the hospital,” the appeal said.

“Since then, members of the group shot and injured a State Trooper,” the appeal continued. “They have vandalized University System of Georgia property on numerous occasions. They assaulted Department of Juvenile Justice employees on their lunch break and destroyed the agency’s property. So too for Department of Transportation contractors and property. These targets were selected solely because of their connection to state government agencies.”

Download our Atlanta News First app for all of the details on the Atlanta Public Safety Center.

Atlanta News First podcasts are available now on: Spotify | Apple Podcasts | Amazon Music | YouTube

Copyright 2026 WANF. All rights reserved.