Drug Dealer Testifies in Tesler Trial

A drug dealer took the stand Wednesday in the trial of a former Atlanta Police officer accused of being involved in the shooting death of 92-year-old Kathryn Johnston.

[liberal]

You really got to love this. A drug dealing informant working for the police and they want to discredit anything he has to say.

[liberal]

when its not in their favor of course

[X COP]

Tessler is a liar.He will do or say anything to save his butt.Hopefully the truth will come out before the end of the trial

[MSJUSTICE]

Everyone involved is guilty. There is no excuss even the Judge who signed the bogus no-knock warrant should be held accountable. All involved will point the finger,GOD doesn't like ugly!!
JUSTICE FOR ALL

[John Doe]

MSJUSTICE wrote:

Everyone involved is guilty. There is no excuss even the Judge who signed the bogus no-knock warrant should be held accountable. All involved will point the finger,GOD doesn't like ugly!!
JUSTICE FOR ALL

And what did the judge do wrong?

[The Sage]

The judges has no control over people lying to them.

I'm not minimizing what these officers did, but this drug dealer is full of crap. Do you honestly think the cops knocked in this lady's door for no reason at all. Do you really think they just randomly chose a house to bust in on? There's a ton of crack houses in Atlanta. It's like shooting fish in a barrel. Obviously, they were hot to get into that particular house for a reason. SOMEONE must have told them they would find a substantial amount of narcotics there. Again, I'm not minimizing what these cops did. They f-ed up royally. If they got that kind of info, they should have verified it first. But this drug dealer who pointed that house out to them in the first place is a lying piece of crap who is equally responsible for this tragedy. He's lying now to save his own skin.

[concearn citizen]

if the fbi really look into the atlanta nartocits unit they will see that the atlanta officers falsly arrested alot of officer that cases should be reheard and their charges should be re versed

[concearn citizen]

re writnig my comment. those 3 officers not only invaded msjohnsons home looking for drugs but they did it to alot of other people who chose to let pease rest. the thought they were gods of the neighbor hood and they did what they wanted to do and no one ever questioned ther duties including the judge who signed the warrent because she had signed so many from these officer she probably was thinking they are really doing a good job keeping those bad guys off the street when all the while they 2 were the bad ones. no justice for the innocent men and wemen who went to jail behind these three morons although i am sure there are a lot more who is shaking in their boots.
but they know they have to see those same guys who they falsly arrested in the general pop

[X COP]

concearn citizen wrote:

re writnig my comment. those 3 officers not only invaded msjohnsons home looking for drugs but they did it to alot of other people who chose to let pease rest. the thought they were gods of the neighbor hood and they did what they wanted to do and no one ever questioned ther duties including the judge who signed the warrent because she had signed so many from these officer she probably was thinking they are really doing a good job keeping those bad guys off the street when all the while they 2 were the bad ones. no justice for the innocent men and wemen who went to jail behind these three morons although i am sure there are a lot more who is shaking in their boots.
but they know they have to see those same guys who they falsly arrested in the general pop

concearned citizen you sound like you think living in a neighborhood where perps of all kinds rape.rob,and kill their good nieghbors,why don't you get out there and clean up the neighborhood,gather some of the good people living there and clean up your neighborhood then you won't need the terrible police in there
maybe you will get your way most of the officers onAPD are afraid to go into Mrs Johnstons neighborhood,they get shot at ,assaulted and when something goes wrong they blame the cops,and the APD administrators don't stand behind their men.I hope the cops stay out of your neighborhood and let you clean up your own mess.Maybe the Perps will listen to you since you like them so much and the cops won't be shaking in their boots you will be--have fun

[ATL]

the drug dealer is a loser/liar. That crackhead slime would say anything.

[liberal]

ATL wrote:

the drug dealer is a loser/liar. That crackhead slime would say anything.

Gosh you'd think the police would have thought that before using him as an informant.

[Atticus Finch]

The Sage wrote:

The judges has no control over people lying to them.
I'm not minimizing what these officers did, but this drug dealer is full of crap. Do you honestly think the cops knocked in this lady's door for no reason at all. Do you really think they just randomly chose a house to bust in on? There's a ton of crack houses in Atlanta. It's like shooting fish in a barrel. Obviously, they were hot to get into that particular house for a reason. SOMEONE must have told them they would find a substantial amount of narcotics there. Again, I'm not minimizing what these cops did. They f-ed up royally. If they got that kind of info, they should have verified it first. But this drug dealer who pointed that house out to them in the first place is a lying piece of crap who is equally responsible for this tragedy. He's lying now to save his own skin.

The judge can exercise lots of control. The judge can ask to talk to the informant to help determine the informant's credibility (or existence). The judge can interview the officer's at length to try to determine whether the stuff they are swearing to in the warrant application really happened. The judge can ask to see the drugs bought at the controlled buy.

The judge can also take steps to control the amount of announcenment that must be given in serving the warrant. For example, the judge could say that the warrant must be served in readily recognizable police uniform (that is, not a ninja uniform) and that teh occupants must be given 5 minutes to open the door.

Judges don't do these things, but they should. The judge here was no worse than any other judge, but that is still bad.

[The Sage]

I don't know where you're getting your information from, but I've never, ever heard of a judge putting conditions in a warrant such as what the cops have to wear and how long they must wait before forcing entry. The warrant is either a "knock" warrant or a "no knock." But if you want to split hairs, even if you have a "knock" warrant, which requires you to give a reasonable amount of time for someone to answer the door, but you don't give them any time to answer the door, any evidence found will not be suppressed according the Supreme Court. You don't have an expectation to be able to destroy evidence that could be used against you.

[petaputa08]

liberal wrote:

<quoted text>Gosh you'd think the police would have thought that before using him as an informant.

Where else are they going to get info? from Kroger?
The no knock warrents should have never been. Informants lie,esp. when it comes to protecting their azzes.In this case it got someone killed. I doubt the police were just sitting around thinking,oh let's go shoot a 92 year old woman tonight multiple times in a bad neighborhood. No knock warrents shouldn't be. It could have benn one of us.

[Atticus Finch]

The Sage wrote:

I don't know where you're getting your information from, but I've never, ever heard of a judge putting conditions in a warrant such as what the cops have to wear and how long they must wait before forcing entry. The warrant is either a "knock" warrant or a "no knock." But if you want to split hairs, even if you have a "knock" warrant, which requires you to give a reasonable amount of time for someone to answer the door, but you don't give them any time to answer the door, any evidence found will not be suppressed according the Supreme Court. You don't have an expectation to be able to destroy evidence that could be used against you.

A judge can put whatever she wants in the warrant. Ultimately, she is in charge, not the popo. She can put in there that whoever serves the warrant has to wear a tu-tu and sing "TipToe Thru the Tulips."

Traditionally judges don't put a lot of conditions in. Traditionally, police are trustworthy and they trust the police. That may or may not change as awareness expands of the problem of SWAT raids on innocent people.

But, don't kid yourself. The judge is in chanrge. If the popo don't like the conditions a judge may choose to put in the warrant, then they don't have to serve it.

[liberal]

petaputa08 wrote:

<quoted text>Where else are they going to get info? from Kroger?
The no knock warrents should have never been. Informants lie,esp. when it comes to protecting their azzes.In this case it got someone killed. I doubt the police were just sitting around thinking,oh let's go shoot a 92 year old woman tonight multiple times in a bad neighborhood. No knock warrents shouldn't be. It could have benn one of us.

Isn't is not it a bad sign that the word of informants are only good whenever its not used against you(police)

[liberal]

forgive typo

[mqueen]

MSJUSTICE wrote:

Everyone involved is guilty. There is no excuss even the Judge who signed the bogus no-knock warrant should be held accountable. All involved will point the finger,GOD doesn't like ugly!!
JUSTICE FOR ALL

Didn't you get the memo? Justice is on vacation.

[The Sage]

Finch, how many warrants have you ever obtained? In my experience, the warrant (if for a location, not a person) contains just the following: the location to be searched (Address and description), the items to be searched for, and a date that the search warrant expires. If it is a "no knock," this will also be indicated on the warrant.

I've never, ever heard of a judge, at any level, issue a search warrant with caveats such as how long the cops have to wait before forcing entry, or how many marked patrol cars there must be outside of the location.

[Atticus Finch]

Sage sed: "I've never, ever heard of a judge, at any level, issue a search warrant with caveats such as how long the cops have to wait before forcing entry, or how many marked patrol cars there must be outside of the location."

Yeah, I know. Judges don't execise the power they have. They routinely delegate responsibility to the police. In this case, that was an irresponsible thing for the judge to do and the results were deadly.
What would you do if you made a warrant application and the judge would not sign off on it unless certain conditions were inserted? I know that has never happened, but imagine it happened tomorrow. What would you do?