October 04, 2016 - 1:58 PM
DECATUR, Ga. - A judge has declined a request to drop the charges against a white former Atlanta-area police officer who shot an unarmed, naked, mentally ill black veteran.
Former DeKalb County police officer Robert Olsen's attorney, Don Samuel, argued at a hearing last month that the principle of grand jury secrecy was violated and that the charges should be dropped. Samuel said extra people were in the room, including extra prosecutors, and that could have kept grand jurors from feeling comfortable asking questions.
In an order signed Wednesday, DeKalb County Superior Court Judge J.P. Boulee said there aren't grounds under Georgia law to dismiss the indictment.
Olsen shot Anthony Hill on March 9, 2015, while responding to a call about a naked man behaving erratically outside a suburban Atlanta apartment complex.
News from © The Associated Press, 2016