Tuesday, September 29, 2009
News Charges from Eagle raid still pending as trial date set
Posted by Scott Henry @ScottTheHenry on Tue, Sep 29, 2009 at 7:28 PM
As the AJC reported this morning, city prosecutors and lawyers for the Atlanta Eagle were in Atlanta Municipal Court bright and early this morning to face off over a set of misdemeanor charges against eight of the gay bar's employees and dancers stemming from a now-notorious Sept. 10 police raid.
Not much happened. A January trial date was set, but that's unlikely to happen. Chances are, the case will be resolved before the Nov. 3 arraignment, when the city is scheduled to file formal charges.
There had been rumors that the city would simply dismiss all charges as a way to avoid prolonging the public-relations headache caused by the heavy-handed, commando-style raid. The fact that this didn't happen suggests that police don't want the added embarrassment of going away empty-handed, but instead are holding out for a plea bargain.
Frankly, when you're starting out with the penny-ante accusation of allowing dancers to perform adult entertainment without a permit, I'm not sure how much room there is to bargain down. Plus, police would need to prove the dancers exposed themselves.
Finally, the city can't really threaten to take the case to trial because it would never survive testimony from 50+ completely innocent Eagle customers describing how they were treated to homophobic insults by the very same police officers claiming to have seen gay dancers pulling down their shorts.
Hey, I'm not a lawyer, but I don't see how this is a case the city can win — nor does it seem worth the pain, effort and expense to try. I'm expecting these charges to evaporate.
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