BRUNSWICK, Ga. — Prosecutors have dropped two remaining charges against a former Georgia police chief and a top aide two months after the state’s highest courtA Superior Court judge granted on Tuesday prosecutors’ motion to withdraw pending charges of influencing a witness and subornation of perjury against former Glynn County Police Chief John Powell and his former chief of staff, Brian Scott.
District Attorney Joe Mulholland’s decision to drop the case ends a four-year effort to prosecute Powell and Scott for what prosecutors called an illegal effort to cover up a narcotics officer’s improper relationship with a confidential informant. “Of course, we are grateful that justice has been served,” Powell’s attorney, Tom Withers, said in an emailed statement Wednesday.The police officials were originally indicted in February 2020, though the oath violation counts and other charges were dismissed months later. Prosecutors obtained a second indictment in 2021 that renewed the oath violation charges.
The problem cited by the court was that the indictment charged both men with violating a specific part of their oath: to uphold due process rights under the U.S. Constitution. Turning a blind eye to police misconduct, the justices said in the unanimous ruling, isn’t a due process issue.
The allegations of scandal involving Powell and Scott ultimately led to the dismantling of Glynn County police’s drug task force. It also prompted a failed attempt by Georgia lawmakers to abolish the county police department and hand law enforcement in parts of Glynn County outside the city of Brunswick back to the elected county sheriff.in 2021. Scott was fired from his job as police chief of Vidalia, Georgia, a few months later when the second indictment was issued.
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