Atlanta Officers Sentenced in Kathryn Johnston Shooting

By Odette Yousef

Atlanta, GA – The three former Atlanta Police officers involved in the 2006 shooting death of elderly Kathryn Johnston were sentenced in federal court today. They are guilty of conspiring to deprive Johnston of her civil rights.

Johnston was killed in a botched drug raid, and her death prompted a sweeping investigation and overhaul of the city's narcotics unit.

WABE's Odette Yousef reports.

Kelly Hill did not understand how the woman she regarded as a grandmother, could be accused of selling drugs, and her reputation so sullied. Today, Hill says Judge Julie Carnes finally gave her closure:

HILL: Overall, I thought she was very fair, and I'm comfortable with her decision.

Jason Smith, the one deemed most culpable in the events that led directly to Johnston's death, was given 10 years. Gregg Junnier, the senior officer, but also the one that cooperated most with federal prosecutors, got 6 years. And Arthur Tesler, in a significant departure from the sentence that prosecutors recommended, got 5 years.

But Markel Hutchins says there's more work; a confidential FBI report on the narcotics unit may implicate other officers in other crimes:

HUTCHINS: This sentence is only justice in as much as that report is used to weed out further corruption and to further hold those who are responsible for this type of offense, not only on Ms. Johnston, but on this community.

Hutchins is a spokesperson for Johnston's surviving niece.

U.S. Attorney David Nahmias said the report is confidential because the Atlanta Police Department is still investigating some of its claims. But he asserts that the Johnston case was the most egregious:

NAHMIAS: We are not anticipating, among the officers we know about and the conduct we know about, federal criminal prosecutions. But there certainly could be officers who are disciplined or fired, or potentially even state charges.

Smith and Junnier will still be sentenced in state court in early March, but according to their plea agreements, they are unlikely to serve anything more than what they were sentenced to today.

Odette Yousef, WABE News.