The judge determined there was enough evidence to proceed with charges of rape, false imprisonment, and aggravated assault against Muhammad Muhammud, who has been held without bond in Fulton County Jail since his arrest last month.
The judge’s decision was influenced by the officer’s admission of having sex with the alleged victim and his presence at the scene without being dispatched, according to Channel 2’s Tyisha Fernandes.
TRENDING STORIES:
Muhammad Muhammud, a former Atlanta police officer, was arrested following an incident on June 5th where he allegedly raped a massage therapist at his apartment while on duty.
Investigators reported that Muhammud called the alleged victim to his apartment for a mobile massage, which took place on a mattress on the floor as the apartment was empty except for a large TV.
The alleged victim claimed that Muhammud agreed to pay $160 for an hour but sexually assaulted her a few minutes into the session.
After leaving the apartment, the alleged victim called 911, and Muhammud reportedly climbed into her ambulance while she was speaking to first responders, prompting her to yell ‘rapist’ and become unable to speak.
The judge noted that the main issue in the case is consent, along with the events surrounding the alleged crimes.
Attorney Kayla Bumpus was filling in for a colleague when she ended up at the center of the latest twist in Young Thug‘s YSL trial. Earlier this week, Judge Ural Glanville paused the court proceedings for Thugger and his co-defendants.
The court official is exploring whether he should recuse himself from the YSL trial after Thugger’s lawyer, Brian Steel, accused him of hosting an “ex-parte meeting.” As of July 1, the judge is waiting on another judge to rule on what should happen next.
For context, an “ex-parte meeting” is a motion, hearing, or order granted on request and for the benefit of one party only.
This week on TSR Investigates, Justin Carter speaks with Bumpus about what went down at the meeting that has pumped the brakes on the trial.
Carter walks us through the 56-page document detailing the meeting between YSL trial Judge Ural Glanville, Bumpus, her client, and state witness Lil Woody, a court reporter, prosecutor Simone Hilton, and another prosecutor.
“We don’t want you in custody. I can’t say that any other different way, but we don’t want you in custody. The only thing that’s holding you is refusing to testify,” one of the prosecutors told Woody.
The witness had attempted to invoke his Fifth Amendment right on the stand when asked his age. Watch the episode below to hear what Attorney Bumpus had to say about the meeting. Carter also explains how Lil Woody claimed to refuse immunity and be a state witness.
Kayla Bumpus Says She Did Not Tell Young Thug’s Lawyer About The Meeting
Kayla insists she did not tell Brian Steel about the meeting but admits to giving additional information when he pressed about it. Lil Woody was at the meeting as Woody’s rep on behalf of a colleague.
“The problem with the meeting is not what was discussed. It’s that Mr. Copeland was already a sworn witness. So defense council should have at least known about the meeting,” Bumpus told Justin Carter.
Young Thug’s lawyer, Steel, confronted the YSL trial judge about the meeting in open court. When Brian refused to reveal the source who told him about the meeting, Ural held him in contempt of court.
“I did not tell Attorney Steel. I do not know who told Attorney Steel, but once they told him, he came and questioned me and I then did give him a rundown of what happened in the meeting,” Kayla added.
The Atlanta Voice interviewed all four candidates earlier this year at The Atlanta Voice office. Election Day is Tuesday, May 21
Kirt Beasley announced her candidacy for Fulton County Sheriff. With over 23 years of experience in Law, she said she feels this is the right time to run for office. Photo by Isaiah Singleton/The Atlanta Voice
Fulton County resident Kirt Beasley officially announced her candidacy for Fulton County Sheriff.With over 23 years of law enforcement experience, Beasley said she is best for the position because she’s “homegrown”.
Beasley began her career with the Fulton County Sheriff’s Department where she served the entirety of her career rising through the ranks under several previous administrations, including under current Fulton County Sheriff Patrick LaBat as a contractor due to her experience.
“I was hired in 1994 by then Fulton County Sheriff Jacquelyn Harrison Barrett and I worked my entire career, basically at the jail. I started as a deputy and was promoted to the rank of sergeant, promoted to the rank of Lieutenant, then to the rank of captain, then the rank of major, and all the way up to the assistant chief jailer,” she said. “So, through all those years there, I learned the sheriff’s office and I know the job.
With an extensive law background, Beasley said she is choosing to run now simply because she cares, she said.
“I care about the employees that work at the sheriff’s office, I care about the people who are detained at the sheriff’s office, I care about the taxpayers of Fulton County, and I care about the people who have loved ones incarcerated at the jail,” she said.
Additionally, Beasley said she can hear the silent cries of the inmates who want many things changed, including an adequate number of staff at the jail to protect them.
“I can hear screams of the taxpayers because we don’t have enough staff, or there’s not enough staff at that jail, and you have inmates who are assaulted.
The Importance of Family
Family is very important, said Beasley, who is a wife, a mother of two daughters, and a grandmother of two. She has been married to her husband, Ken, for 19 years.
“He’s the best and he’s great. Our 19 years have been fine, we’re enjoying and have enjoyed those years, and we plan to enjoy life together,” she said.
Beasley said her two daughters are scientists in their own field of study.
“One, works in a study of cancer research, and the other does, organ transplantation,” she said. “Then, I have my heartbeats, a 12-year-old grandson, and my five-year-old granddaughter.”
Ken believes his wife is the best choice for the job.
“I feel great my wife is running for Sheriff in Fulton County. I think she’s best for the agency, the citizens, and taxpayers, point blank,” he said. “You couldn’t get a better candidate who knows that.”
Beasley’s response to the many issues at the county jail is rooted in action and care.
“You must have a share in an agency in place, ready to ensure the safety of the people detained at that jail. So, I believe this action speaks louder than words. You must put yourself into action,” she said. “The sheriff must know that the sheriff’s office is not to be used for his or her personal agenda. It’s all about the citizens of Fulton County.”
Beasley gave an example of this.
“The jail is the largest liability to the citizens of Fulton County, so if you see that’s your biggest problem, then you need to adjust staff and reallocate staff.”
Also, Beasley said she knows there are other duties of the sheriff’s office.
“I know we’re responsible for the courts securing the courts. I know we’re responsible for serving civil papers, executing warrants, and all the things that come with the sheriff’s office, but you must deal with your most pressing problem first to make a difference,” she said.
If elected, Beasley said she’s going to bring her knowledge and experience to the table.
“With that knowledge and experience, I’m going to bring some other knowledge and experience with me,” Beasley said. “I’m going to look for people with the same work ethics, values, and morals. I must come in there and put the county first and put the inmates first, the staff first. I’m going to have people working around me to make me better.”
She also said if elected, her priority will be to address the jail conditions like being overcrowded, understaffed, and ultimately unsafe. She also plans to prioritize funds for necessary facility improvements, while providing tax-paying citizens transparency and accountability in budget allocation.
Additionally, she said she will not be a sheriff who will not listen to what others have to say to her to make things better.
“In order to make any agency better or do anything better, you must surround yourself with people who are all working towards that one common goal. In this case, this common goal is to make the sheriff’s office better and to make Fulton County better as a whole,” she said.
The interview and subsequent story on Fulton County Sheriff’s candidate Kurt Beasley was conducted and written by Isaiah Singleton.
Fulton County Sheriff candidate James “JT” Brown worked in the department for 37 years. During his career he had been a part of multiple divisions and special positions, including the Fulton County Grievance Board. Photo by Kerri Phox/The Atlanta Voice
Fulton County Sheriff candidate James “JT” Brown has a plan. In fact, the now-retired veteran law enforcement officer has a three-step plan to return the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office (FCSO) to what he believed were its former lofty heights of respectability and efficiency. These days, you can Google the combination of “Fulton County Sheriff’s Office” and “Atlanta 2023” and a plethora of stories and posts on probes into the Fulton County Jail, detention officer arrests, and bad reviews on working at the jail.
On a Friday morning inside the offices of The Atlanta Voice Brown took his badge out of the breast pocket of his navy blue suit. He retired in December 2022 so these days his FCSO badge reads “retired”, but he still keeps it close. After 37 years with the department, the level of pride he once had in the badge has changed.
“My badge is tarnished,” said Brown, tapping the badge with his right index finger. “What’s going on in the jail, the atrocities, we are talking about a controlled environment. How are people dying in a controlled environment when you have an almost quarter-billion-dollar budget?”
The plan is simple, says Brown. It consists of the “Three D’s”, he explained. “Deaths, dollars, and diversion.” Regarding the multiple deaths that have taken place within the Fulton County Jail the past few years during current FCSO Sheriff Patrick Labat’s first term as sheriff, Brown said, “We are going to correct that problem.”
Last year Brown and other retired department members who were still on reserve helped with a shakedown at the jail. Having been gone for a year, he was surprised at how things looked inside the jail where he once worked. “We found 138 shanks on detainees that day,” he recalled. “I know the county can do better because I saw better.”
On the fiscal issues that have taken place, Brown said, “The fiscal management is shot over there, so we are going to correct that and make sure the budget is running efficiently and effectively.”
The final “D” in the plan calls for programs that will focus on the youngest offenders. Brown spent time in the FCSO warrant division and witnessed first-hand how an arrest can derail a young man’s life. “This is what I heard from the kids when we went to their house because their parents couldn’t handle them, ‘Officer I dropped out of school because I couldn’t read’,” said Brown, who believes the road to petty crimes and ultimately a trip to Rice Street oftentimes starts with not being in school.
“I told myself that if I ever got in charge I would create a reading program for the youth, and would work with community partners so we can bring the jail rate down.”
Brown has seen it all and then some during his career, which is entirely with the FCSO. As a member of the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office (FCSO) he not only worked on the warrant division but also the extradition unit, and was elected to the Fulton County Grievance Board. During his career, he also received training from the National Association on Mental Illness (NAMI).
“I am a law enforcement CEO,” said Brown, a Detroit native who graduated from Morehouse College in 1985 before joining the FCSO in 1986, starting his nearly four-decade-long career. That career and the educational experiences that took place during that time are what Brown’s supporters are saying which makes him the candidate to choose.
“We have to start putting people in office who carry character. That’s the challenge,” said Brown’s wife of 19 years Monisha Brown. “My challenge to voters is to ask around the county about the reputations of all four candidates.”
One of those voters will be the couple’s 18-year-old son London. He will be voting for the first time by the time the May 12 primary election takes place. “I see myself as an average voter and not JT Brown’s son,” he said. “The way he has to convince everyone else to vote for him, he has to do the same for me.”
London remembered an exchange between the two when he asked his father what he was planning to do if elected and what he was planning to change.
“He wants to change the image of the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office,” London recalled. “From what he told me I told him he had my vote. I don’t see myself voting for JT Brown, my father, I see myself as an average voter voting for the best candidate who I believe is going to do what he needs to do to fix the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office.”
Joyce Farmer, a 34-year veteran of law enforcement, is running for Fulton County Sheriff. Photo by Kerri Phox/The Atlanta Voice
Joyce Farmer, a candidate for Fulton County Sheriff, has two distinct memories embedded in her brain regarding why she is running for elected office for the first time in her life. In an interview inside The Atlanta Voice building earlier this week, she recalled both moments with vivid color.
Moment one: Farmer was in her East Point Police Department uniform when a mother and daughter approached her. Zoe, an eight-year-old girl, walked over to Farmer and asked her why she was running for sheriff. The girl recognized her from a campaign poster and asked her mother if they could meet the lady in uniform. Farmer, a mother of three adult children and grandmother of two, wanted to make sure she took a moment to answer the girl. “I told her the reason why I want to be sheriff is to protect little girls like her,” Farmer remembered.
Moment two: The death of Lashawn Thompson within the walls of the Fulton County Jail on Sept. 13, 2022. The 35-year-old was found dead inside his cell in the psychiatric wing of the jail covered in bed bugs. The thought of Thompson’s death still bothers Farmer. “Mental health is not a crime, it’s a sickness, just like someone with high blood pressure,” Farmer explained. “Part of my platform will be to educate the community because a lot of people deal with mental health issues in their family.”
Not having any political experience might help Farmer. She is coming into the primary election without having had dreams of becoming the sheriff of Atlanta’s largest county. “I prayed about it and asked God if he wanted me to do this please let me know,” she recalled.
She started campaigning in June 2023 and hasn’t looked back since. “I’m so grateful and I’m going to stay grounded,” said Farmer.
There’s a lot of fights in Farmer. She was a deputy for 15 years before she was finally promoted to the rank of sergeant by former three-term Fulton County Sheriff Jacquelyn Harrison Barrett, the first Black female sheriff in the United States, in 2003. Farmer was moved out of the jail and into the role of a trainer at the Public Safety Center, where she helped train incoming sheriff’s deputies.
Farmer says she has a plan to raise morale within the department. “The supervisors shouldn’t be so hard on the staff in the field doing the work,” she said.
The reason for creating those personal connections with the staff is simple, says Farmer. “It’s all about being real. I might not be that polished politician, but I want to be real and look out for each other.”
Born and raised in Macon, Farmer brings decades of experience to the polls. “As a deputy, we are there to protect the inmates from each other and themselves,” explained Farmer, a 34-year veteran of law enforcement, which includes 29 years with the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office (FCSO). “Everybody is not in the [law enforcement] field for all the right reasons.”
When asked if she believes she can win the election Farmer said she did. “God already said I got it,” said Farmer. “I just need to trust him. Man doesn’t promote me, God does.”
Fulton County Sheriff Patrick Labat (above) visited The Atlanta Voice office on Tuesday, Mar. 12 in order to complete our series of stories on everyone campaigning for the office of sheriff in Georgia’s largest county. Labat was elected sheriff in 2020. Photo by Kerri Phox/The Atlanta Voice
Fulton County Sheriff Patrick Labat’s current term ends on New Year’s Eve, 2024. Long before the peach drops (not actually, since there isn’t an actual Peach Drop any longer) on a new year, there will be an even more important decision day to observe: election day. The general election for a number of high-ranking positions within Fulton County, the state’s largest and most populated county, will take place on Tuesday, May 21. That includes sheriff, a position Labat ran for and won in 2020.
Walking into The Atlanta Voice office on Tuesday, Mar. 12, Labat gives off the impression that he’s not worried about having to campaign for office again. Wearing his uniform and flanked by members of his staff and security team, he took a seat at a conference table and answered questions about why he believes he is not only doing a good job but should be re-elected as sheriff.
“We came into office after defeating a three-term incumbent with a spirit of change,” said Labat. “We came in at the height of COVID, 3,700 individuals, 600 of them were sleeping on the floor. So our first goal was to treat people humanely.”
The inmates are no longer sleeping on the floors of the jail due to overcrowding, according to Labat. Having spent ten years of his 35-year law enforcement career as chief of the Atlanta Department of Corrections, Labat understands that in order to effect even more change, including the culture at the jail, there are going to be some rough moments.
“Change is necessary, and people don’t like change,” he said. “In that environment, we focused on how we treat each other, and our goal was to focus on how we provide service for individuals.”
An example Labat gave where change was implemented upon his arrival was the changing of the department’s mission statement from a long paragraph to just one word: service.
“If we cannot provide service for you, we are not doing our jobs,” he says. “So ultimately, we are people first and service first.”
Asked what he offers voters who will be heading to the polls in just a couple of months to decide the next leader of the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office, Labat said, “I offer a continued vision people elected me for in the first place. Let’s fight together, and let’s continue to work together.”
During Labat’s time as sheriff there has been the creation of an inmate advocacy unit that assists inmates with their paperwork and identifying inmates that might get lost in the system and be spending more time in the jail than necessary, on a legal basis. During Labat’s time, the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office also created a free app that allows inmate welfare checks for families and friends to keep up with inmates.
“We have been very successful over the last three and a half years,” says Labat, who added he and his staff are in the “Embryonic stages of creating something that people can be proud of when they come to work.”
The Fulton County Sheriff has three main responsibilities: protect the courts, run the jail, which has 3,700 inmates, and be the chief law enforcement officer for Fulton County. Labat says potential voters may not have a complete grasp of all of the responsibilities of the job and the “challenges” that he faced when he took office in January 2021. He wants to be as transparent as possible about the job he and his staff are doing heading into his fourth year on the job.
There is also the issue of the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office being understaffed, something that many law enforcement agencies across the country have experienced. Labat believes there’s a realistic answer to the age-old question of how to find good help these days. “We have to be the employer of choice, and that starts with having a Board of Commissioners who understands that we focus on people first,” Labat said.
Asked what he would say to the Fulton County voters if given the opportunity, Labat said he would ask for more time because what he is doing is working. “What I would ask the voters is, let’s fight together, let’s continue to finish. We’re just getting started.”
Produced by ElevenLabs and NOA, News Over Audio, using AI narration.
Donald Trump dropped in for a photo op in Georgia last night—not the usual kibbitz on the hustings for a former president, but a killer visual to end the week with: a mug shot.
And just like that, Trump was restored to his accustomed place in the Republican dogpile: everywhere. It was hard to look away, even if you wanted to. Former presidents do not go and get fingerprinted and mug-shotted and perp-walked every day, even the one former president who takes his arraignments in gift packs of four.
Clichés are always bad, and sometimes quite wrong, but the conceit that this would be a “split screen” week for the Republican campaign—eight GOP debaters on one screen, Trump’s co-defendants getting processed on the other—was spectacularly amiss from the start. One screen this week would blot out all of the rest.
Yes, Wednesday’s debate yielded a few enduring images—including Chris Christie, Mike Pence, and Nikki Haley all fixing simultaneous stink eyes upon Vivek Ramaswamy, as if they were about to stab him with their pens. But those moments unquestionably pale next to what emanated last night from Fulton County. Trump’s mug shot, probably the most anticipated in history, seems destined to also be the most analyzed and disseminated.
You can assume that the subject, a figure of uncommon vanity, obsessed like hell over his bureaucratic close-up. How should he pose? For what aura should he strive? Tough guy, defiant, or wounded pup? Would makeup be allowed? Thumbs-ups or no?
Trump had come and gone from the Fulton County Jail by about 8 p.m. on the East Coast. Roughly 95 percent of Americans—or at least a sampling of hyper-online individuals in my feed—furiously began refreshing social media to see if the image was out yet. There were a few fakeouts and some inspired memes. Trump’s recorded weight—215 pounds—became a topic for discussion. It was widely doubted.
Finally, around 8:40 p.m, the mug shot landed. Trump’s hair and eyebrows were more feathered than usual, like he had brushed them out. Lips were pursed, eyes stern and severe, his brow zig-zagging like lightning. The former president looked like the Grinch—the Grinch Who Stole Georgia (or tried).
One thing that seemed clear from the other co-defendant processings this week is that the “deep state” wise guy who’s in charge of the booking shots at this notorious Atlanta jail is not much interested in customer service. The alleged lawbreakers have appeared, for the most part, shaken and disoriented. The lighting in the photos is awful; a harsh shine beats down over the side of each defendant’s forehead. The lawyer John Eastman seems confused; Mark Meadows, kind of sedated; a smiling Sidney Powell looks under-slept (and bonkers); Rudy Giuliani delivered the perfect “after” image to view alongside his Time “Person of the Year” cover from 2001.
Trump’s photo offers a rough visage, formidable and extremely serious—which is what I assume he was going for. He made an effort here. It paid off. He gave his haters nothing in the ballpark of vulnerability. At 9:38 p.m., he tweeted out the image with a link to his campaign website and a message: “NEVER SURRENDER!”
Each defendant’s photo, including Trump’s, is imprinted with a prominent Fulton County Sheriff’s Office badge in the top left corner. The logo carries a subtle but powerful message: Don’t even think about portraying this as anything but a dark, singular, and deeply unpleasant occasion. This is no place for joyriders or dilettantes or Instagram peacocks. You can post bail and leave, for now, but you don’t want to come back, trust us. Take a whiff and remember it.
No doubt, Trump will. He does not like places that are “not nice.” He is sensitive to germs and smells. “There have been ongoing problems with overcrowding in the [Fulton County] jail, along with violence, overflowing toilets and faulty air conditioning,” The WashingtonPostreported last week.
But at least Trump was spared the spin room in Milwaukee.
For the record, Ramaswamy dominated that particular halitosis hall after Wednesday night’s debate. He kept darting from one late-night interview to the next, big-man-on-the-stage that he was. “I gotta keep moving, gotta keep moving,” Ramaswamy announced as he glad-handed his way through the sweaty scene. At one point, he approached a CNN camera where host Dana Bash was preparing to interview North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum. Ramaswamy tapped Bash on the shoulder, and Bash lit up, recognizing this sleeker vessel that had drifted into precious airspace. She seized her moment, as Ramaswamy had earlier, securing the peppy capitalist after an awkward back-and-forth with the governor.
“I gotta keep moving,” Ramaswamy said again as someone tried to grab him away from Bash’s camera setup. This was his big night. Everyone was watching him, and he seemed determined to savor it all before midnight struck. Trump would be back and inescapable again soon enough.
ATLANTA (AP) — A man who died in a bedbug-infested cell in a Georgia jail’s psychiatric wing “died due to severe neglect,” according to an independent autopsy released Monday by lawyers for his family.
Lashawn Thompson, 35, died in September, three months after he was booked into the Fulton County Jail in Atlanta.
Public outrage over his death spread last month after a lawyer for his family, Michael Harper, released photos of Thompson’s face and body covered in insects.
“Mr. Thompson was neglected to death,” says the autopsy report written by Dr. Roger A. Mitchell Jr., a former chief medical examiner in Washington, D.C., who is now a professor and chair of the pathology department at Howard University College of Medicine.
The independent autopsy report lists the cause of death as “Complications due to Severe Neglect,” with “Untreated Decompensated Schizophrenia” identified as a contributing cause.
A combination of dehydration, rapid weight loss and malnutrition, complicated by untreated decompensated schizophrenia led to a fatal cardiac arrythmia, the report says.
Because he did not receive necessary medical care or adequate food, water and shelter, his manner of death is homicide, Mitchell wrote.
An earlier report from the Fulton County medical examiner’s office found no obvious signs of trauma on Thompson’s body but noted a “severe bed bug infestation.” It lists his cause of death as “undetermined.”
The new autopsy “confirms that this is one of the most deplorable in-custody deaths in the history of America,” said prominent civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who represents the family.
The family’s lawyers and advocates gave credit to Fulton County Sheriff Pat Labat, who has publicly called Thompson’s death “absolutely unconscionable.” Labat, who took office in 2021 and has long advocated for a new jail, has said Thompson’s death shows that the current jail cannot provide “safe and humane detention.”
He said in a statement Monday that he hadn’t had a chance to fully review the independent autopsy report but that even before it was issued, “it was painfully clear there were a number of failures that led to Mr. Thompson’s tragic death.”
He said he had already held executive staff responsible by asking for and receiving the resignations of three top staffers. And he said there could be repercussions for anyone found to be negligent once the full investigation is turned over to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.
“I remain committed to making sure the Thompson family receives the answers they need and deserve about the unconscionable circumstances surrounding Mr. Thompson’s death,” Labat said.
The family’s lawyers and advocates also called on the Fulton County Board of Commissioners to take responsibility and act quickly to fix the problems at the jail and urged the district attorney’s office to bring criminal charges in Thompson’s death. They also called on Gov. Brian Kemp to address a “mental health crisis” in the state.
Thompson had lost 32 pounds, or about 18% of his body weight, during his three months at the Fulton County Jail and showed evidence of dehydration, the report says. In addition to an “innumerable number of insects” all over his body, his hands, feet, fingernails and toenails were filthy, it says.
Medical records from the jail indicate that Thompson received his last dose of the medications he’d been prescribed for his mental health issues 32 days before his death, the report says.
“Mr. Thompson was completely reliant on his caregivers to provide both day-to-day care as well as the acute life-saving care that was needed to save him from the untreated decompensated schizophrenia,” the report says.
