Deliberations to continue in cop trial: 92 Year Old Black Woman Killed by Atlanta Police in Drug Raid

A jury deliberated Friday without deciding the fate of an Atlanta police officer accused of helping cover up a botched drug raid in which a 92-year-old woman was killed in her home. The jury, which also deliberated part of Thursday, will resume Monday. A judge denied multiple defense requests Friday for a mistrial. Arthur Tesler faces state charges of violation of oath by a public officer, making false statements and false imprisonment under color of legal process. Tesler, who is on leave from the police force, faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted of the three charges. Two other officers involved in the Nov. 21, 2006, raid on Kathryn Johnston's home, Jason R. Smith and Gregg Junnier, have pleaded guilty to state manslaughter and federal civil rights charges.The jury in the trial of Atlanta Police Det. Arthur Bruce Tesler went home Friday evening without reaching a verdict. They are scheduled to resume deliberations Monday morning.

Hours before they went home, though, the jury asked a question pertaining to the narrowly drawn up indictment of Tesler by the Fulton County District Attorney. The query seemed to bode poorly for prosecutors.Tesler is accused of lying to get a search warrant that resulted in a botched narcotics raid and the police killing of an innocent 92-year-old woman.

Tesler testified he did not know that his partner, Jason R. Smith, had perjured himself to a judge to get the no-knock warrant for the northwest Atlanta home despite knowing his partners regularly broke the law to get warrants and make arrests.

Tesler admitted his role in the cover-up of the illegal warrant after Kathryn Johnston was killed on Nov. 21, 2006 but contended he feared for his safety and his career if didn't assist his partners, Smith and Gregg Junnier. He helped destroy evidence and fed an elaborate cover story to the FBI of a phony drug by at Johnston's house at 933 Neal St. to justify the raid.

The Superior Court jury wanted to know if it could convict Tesler of violation of oath of office — which carries a 5-year prison sentence —because of his illegal acts after the raid. Superior Court Michael Johnson instructed the jury that it could only consider whether Tesler was guilty of lying to get the warrant for that count of the three-count indictment.

The District Attorney's Office could have indicted Tesler on multiple counts of violation of oath of office but it chose not to, said William McKenney, Tesler's lawyer.

Tesler is also indicted on charges of lying in an official investigation and false imprisonment because of his role in surrounding Johnston's house, a highly technical charge that prosecutor Kellie Hill explained to the jury on Thursday before it began deliberating. Junnier and Smith, who were also indicted on charges including murder, have pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter.

Junnier testified Tesler should have known the warrant was bogus because Smith told him he had included his name in the narrative of observing an undercover drug buy from a young man at Johnston's house.

Johnston was killed after Tesler, Junnier and Smith had arrested a low-level dealer earlier in the day who they said contended he had seen a kilo of cocaine in the Johnston house when visiting a drug dealer named "Sam." No cocaine was found and Johnston's neighbors said the mysterious "Sam" didn't operate from the house.

FBI Agent Joe Robuck produced a tape recording of Tesler telling an elaborate lie about how he and his partners had used their regular informant, Alex White, to make a buy at the house to verify the low-level drug dealer's information.

The tape-recording was made at Tesler's request a couple of weeks after the raid.

But White had told the FBI he was being pressured by Tesler's partners to lie. A month later, during Tesler's second interview with the FBI, he confessed.