Two Glynn County commissioners are being asked to stay quiet when it comes to the Ahmaud Arbery case.
Documents show that Brunswick District Attorney Jackie Johnson feels that statements about her office and its involvement in the Arbery case are false.
The shooting death of Ahmaud Arbery is a topic of conversation at the national and local levels.
Glynn County Commissioner Peter Murphy discussed the case during a Facebook live Tuesday night.
In a wide-ranging interview posted on the I Run With Maud page, Murphy discussed a cease and desist letter he received from an attorney representing Jackie Johnson.
“It basically says to shut up because we’re being accused of malicious slander,” Murphy said.
The letter says that the commissioners should cease and desist from statements about Jackie Johnson, her office or their involvement in the Ahmaud Arbery case.
The letter written to Glynn County Attorney Aaron Mumford says in part:
“Please be advised that you are notified the actions and statements of commissioners [Peter] Murphy and [Allen] Booker amount to libel and slander…Your clients are put on notice that they should immediately cease and desist from making any statements that Jackie Johnson and/or anyone associated with the Brunswick Judicial Circuit District Attorney’s office advised any law enforcement official that no arrest should be made in the investigation pertaining to Ahmaud Arbery.”
“As you are aware, defamed public officials and public figures can recover upon showing of actual malice and renders the persons libel for damages.”
A lawyer for the commissioners says there is no evidence of actual malice.
In the letter, attorney Brad Watkins speaks on behalf of the commissioners and county attorney Mumford.
“Your letter alleges that the “actions and statements of commissioners Murphy and Booker amount to libel and slander…No specific actions or statements are identified in your letter.”
Watkins writes, “I am more than surprised by your threat of litigation…There is certainly no evidence of actual malice and knowing falsity in any comments made by Glynn County commissioners as to their understanding of communications with the Brunswick District Attorney’s office as to whether to arrest the McMichaels.”
First Coast News asked Jackie Johnson’s office for comment on Wednesday. They deferred to previous statements that the Brunswick DA’s office immediately recused themselves due to a conflict of interest when two assistant DA’s were contacted by police on February 23.
“At no time on February 23, 2020, did District Attorney Jackie Johnson have any conversation with any Glynn County police officer about this case. Further, no Assistant District Attorney in the office directed any Glynn County police officer not to make an arrest.”
Johnson says her office put the Glynn County Police Department in contact with Waycross DA George Barnhill, who wrote there was no probable cause for an arrest.
Greg McMichael, a man charged with Arbery’s death was a former investigator in the Brunswick DA’s office and worked with Johnson.
Since the shooting, protests have asked for Johnson to be voted out of office.
It’s among the many calls asking for justice for Ahmaud Arbery.
The preliminary hearings for Greg McMichael, Travis McMichael, and William “Roddie” Bryan have been scheduled for June 4 at 9:30 a.m. in the Magistrate Court by Chief Judge, Wallace E. Harrell.
All three men face felony murder charges in Arbery’s death.