May 18, 2026
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: May 18, 2026
Two Recently Indicted Stop Cop City Defendants Move to Dismiss Their Case Ahead of June 22 Trial, Four Years After Their Arrest
Attorney General Chris Carr Takes Aggressive Posture Against “Cobb County 3” Despite DA Withdrawing Charges Last Year Against Two Codefendants
COBB COUNTY, GA —Two Stop Cop City activists have moved to dismiss charges filed against them last month by Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr, just three weeks before the four-year statute of limitations was due to expire. Hannah Kass, Katie Kloth, and Tyler Norman were indicted on April 24 on charges of felony property damage and arson of lands, stemming from arrests that occurred in May 2022. Kass and Norman quickly made demands for a speedy trial and earlier this month the Cobb County Superior Court scheduled their trial for June 22. While Kloth’s trial date is uncertain at this time, supporters are referring to the three defendants as the “Cobb County 3.”
Lawyers for Kass filed motions late Friday, which were also adopted by Norman, to dismiss the charges based on selective prosecution and a violation of due process rights. “The Georgia Attorney General deliberately delayed [Kass’s] prosecution in Cobb County, solely for tactical advantage, while it continues to concurrently attempt to prosecute her in Fulton County,” read the motion to dismiss. Earlier this month, Kass filed a motion to quash the indictment against the Cobb County 3, accusing Carr of sidestepping constitutional and statutory requirements and obtaining the indictment without Governor Kemp’s authorization. The same argument was the basis for a Fulton County judge to dismiss racketeering charges against Kass, Kloth, and Norman in December. A pretrial hearing on the motions is scheduled for June 17.
“This latest indictment is Attorney General Chris Carr’s attempt to gain political points with his base in advance of the gubernatorial primary,” said activist and scholar Dr. Hannah Kass. “The timing of the indictment coinciding with Carr’s losing campaign for governor is no accident and smacks of political theater,” continued Kass. “But Carr is failing in his political race, just as he failed in his attempt to convict us of racketeering, and he’s going to fail in this latest case for the same reasons.”
On May 12, 2022, scores of people were protesting at the headquarters of Brasfield and Gorrie, which served as general contractor for the Atlanta Public Safety Training Center, widely known as “Cop City.” Five people were arrested that day, two of whom saw their charges withdrawn by the Cobb County District Attorney in April 2025. Even though the case against Kass, Kloth, and Norman have the same set of facts as their two co-defendants whose charges were withdrawn last year, Attorney General Carr—and notably not the Cobb County District Attorney—indicted the three for felony property damage and arson of lands. Cobb County Superior Court Judge Sonja Brown, the same judge who presided over last year’s withdrawal of charges, will oversee the June trial.
“It’s striking that a former co-defendant and I were released from the same case that others are still being prosecuted for, on the same charges,” said Joseph Turner, a former co-defendant of the Cobb County 3 who saw his charges withdrawn by the district attorney last year. “The way these indictments have been selectively pursued by prosecutors underscores their political nature,” continued Turner. “And the addition of allegations such as arson, without substantial proof, appears designed to inflame the rhetoric around an already highly ideological prosecution rather than to serve justice.”
In March, twelve Stop Cop City defendants filed motions to dismiss their three-year-old unindicted domestic terrorism charges in Dekalb County. Then, in April, three organizers with the Atlanta Solidarity Fund moved to dismiss their unindicted charities fraud charges three years after their arrest. All fifteen defendants are currently awaiting a decision from Dekalb County Superior Court Judge David B. Irwin. Two defendants who were arrested in 2023 have already had their unindicted domestic terrorism charges dismissed in Dekalb County, one in March 2025 and another in August 2025.
All of the defendants indicted on April 23 and those currently moving to dismiss their unindicted domestic terrorism charges are part of a group of 61 Stop Cop City activists charged under the Georgia Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act in August 2023. The sweeping RICO charges were dismissed in December, and that decision was appealed by Attorney General Carr in January. Defendants and their supporters are calling the RICO appeal and this latest indictment against the Cobb County 3 an attempt by Carr to revive his failing campaign bid for governor of Georgia.
The 61 RICO defendants, who were arrested on different dates from 2020 to 2023 at various locations across Georgia, have had their lives upended as a result of the charges. Many defendants have experienced job losses, housing issues, career disruptions, and travel restrictions, in addition to the stress and anxiety that comes from the threat of years in prison hanging over their heads.
Kass filed a federal lawsuit in 2024 alleging claims of excessive force, false arrest, unlawful detention, and malicious prosecution, all stemming from her May 2022 arrest and subsequent RICO prosecution. Kass said in a March 2025 statement that, “The state must be held accountable and dissuaded from continuing to use police terror, random false arrests and detention, malicious prosecution, and other civil rights violations as tools of abuse against those who disagree with state actions.”
The Stop Cop City movement has drawn national attention amid ongoing prosecutions of protesters, organizers, and supporters who opposed the project. Supporters of the defendants have criticized the prosecutions as part of a broader effort to criminalize protest and chill dissent against a deeply unpopular City of Atlanta project, which was pushed forward by a constellation of multinational corporations embedded into the prison industrial complex of the United States. In 2023, the people of Atlanta expressed their widespread rejection of this project through the COP CITY VOTE public referendum.
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For more information on the ATL 61, the sweeping criminal cases, and ways to support the defendants and the movement to Stop Cop City, go to: weelauneethefree.org. (Full press release: https://weelauneethefree.org/two-recently-indicted-stop-cop-city-defendants-move-to-dismiss-their-case-ahead-of-june-22-trial-four-years-after-their-arrest/) #StopCopCity #Georgia #Atlanta