"Former APD chief must face protester's defamation suit, judge says"
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, in an article by Rosie Manins, wrote about Wade, Grunberg & Wilson, LLC’s recent success in a defamation case pending in federal court in Georgia. WGW’s client sued Rodney Bryant, former police chief with the Atlanta Police Department, for making false accusations that the client was involved with gang-affiliated crimes despite being aware that the client had been arrested only for violating a curfew and subsequently spitting on an officer while in custody. U.S. District Court Judge J.P. Boulee permitted the case to proceed, holding that “Plaintiff’s allegations are sufficient to plead actual malice because they plausibly show that Defendant knew his statements were false at the time they were made and were made in retaliation for Plaintiff’s behavior during his arrest.” Judge Boulee further held that “Plaintiff alleged that Defendant possessed firsthand knowledge that Plaintiff was not a gang member or a repeat violent offender and nonetheless published information suggesting that Plaintiff was in a gang and responsible for a significant amount of violent crime. Plaintiff’s allegations thus support a reasonable inference that Defendant acted with knowledge of falsity and ill will, rather than mere negligence or reckless disregard of the truth.”
The article quotes Taylor Wilson:
Taylor Wilson, one of [plaintiff]’s attorneys, said they appreciate the judge’s order and look forward to sharing the case with a jury. . . .
‘The APD and FBI’s supposed time-traveling task force, and the decision to pluck [plaintiff] from myriad arrests to brand him one of its dangerous targets, is what this litigation is about,’ Wilson told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. ‘A curfew violation and an alleged single instance of spitting does not in any rational fashion equate to gang violence, gun trafficking, drug trafficking, or the stated unprecedented rise in homicides during COVID.’
Read the full article (with subscription) here.