Charges dropped for 'Cop City' defendants; New details on immigration raid at Hyundai

Summary

---

Georgia Today Podcast

Episode: Charges Dropped for 'Cop City' Defendants; New Details on Immigration Raid at Hyundai
Date: September 9, 2025
Host: Chase McGee (GPB News)

---

Episode Overview

This episode of Georgia Today delivers key news updates from around the state, with a focus on three major stories:

• Potential dismissal of charges against 61 "Cop City" defendants in Atlanta.
• Insight into an immigration raid at a Hyundai plant near Savannah, involving South Korean workers.
• Augusta’s ongoing recovery from Hurricane Helene and the environmental aftermath, particularly the loss of urban forestation. Additional coverage includes state legislative updates, business investments, educational program launches, and new community initiatives.

---

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Charges Likely Dropped for 'Cop City' Defendants

[00:40 – 02:27]

• Judicial Ruling: Judge Kevin Farmer announced charges will likely be dropped for the majority of 61 defendants charged under Georgia’s RICO law for protesting the Atlanta Public Safety Training Center ("Cop City").
  • The judge cited lack of authority from Attorney General Chris Carr, stating Carr should have sought Governor Kemp’s approval.
  • Defendants faced a wide range of accusations, from violent actions (throwing Molotov cocktails) to non-violent support (supplying food to protesters).
• Case Background: The prosecution’s handling was marked by severe procedural errors, including sharing privileged emails between defendants and their lawyers, which another judge called "gross negligence."
• Remaining Charges: Five defendants might still face domestic terrorism charges under a state law broadened in 2017. No defendants have been tried so far.

Notable Quote:
"Judge Farmer said he didn't believe Attorney General Chris Carr had the authority to secure the indictments two years ago under Georgia's RICO law, saying Carr should have sought Governor Brian Kemp's permission before pursuing the case." — Chase McGee [00:40]

---

2. Georgia Legislative Updates

[02:27 – 03:49]

• Gwinnett County Special Election: Governor Kemp called a special election for November 4 to replace retiring Rep. Shelly Hutchinson (D). She stepped down for family health reasons and endorsed Akbar Ali.
• Bipartisan Israel Delegation: Five Georgia lawmakers (three Republicans, two Democrats) will visit Israel as part of a 250-member U.S. delegation.
  • State Senator Russ Goodman will return to Israel after experiencing Hamas’s 2023 attack during a previous visit.

Memorable Moment:
"It was quite, quite an experience. You know, being at the Ambassador Hotel there in Jerusalem and hearing machine gun fire from the balcony and all, you know, pretty surreal." — Sam, recounting Goodman’s description of October 2023 in Israel [03:22]

---

3. Immigration Raid at Hyundai Electric Vehicle Plant

[03:49 – 05:46]

• Attorney’s Perspective: Charles Cook, Atlanta attorney, represents four South Korean workers among 475 rounded up; 300 Koreans in total were detained.
  • Many were brought for specialized roles in building electric vehicle battery lines—work requiring 3–5 years of specialized training not widely available in the U.S.
• Industry Practice: It’s common for international firms to send workers to jumpstart U.S. operations and train domestic staff.

Notable Quote:
"Most had come for short term jobs installing equipment for producing electric vehicle batteries, work he said would take about three to five years to train someone in the US to do." — Chase McGee [03:49]

---

4. Augusta’s Struggle to Recover Urban Forest After Hurricane Helene

[06:04 – 09:57]

• Scope of Damage: The 2024 hurricane devastated much of Augusta's urban forest, destroying shade cover and impacting home energy use and neighborhood aesthetics.
  • About 20 football fields of tree canopy lost in the central business district alone.
  • Neighborhoods still bear scars: “The tree canopy is completely gone.” — Campbell Vaughn [08:00]
• Impact on Residents: Increased heat in unshaded areas:
  • Ground temperatures on grass surpassed 100°F versus 87°F in shade.
  • "At the hottest parts of the day in Augusta, we measure about a 10 degree difference between the sun and the shade." — Sophie Grata [08:23]
• Financial Strains: Augusta has nearly an $11 million budget shortfall and is awaiting state/federal funds for full storm recovery.
• Expert Advice:
  • Plant the "right tree in the right place" for resilience and sustainability—focus on natives with deep roots.
  • Communities can regrow a robust urban forest for future generations:
    “I always try to tell people, don’t get so discouraged... in 80 years we can have a community forest again.” — Seth Hawkins, Georgia Forestry Commission [09:48]

---

5. Additional Highlights & Community News

[05:46 – 11:22]

• Business & Education:
  • Anheuser Busch invests $9 million to upgrade its Cartersville brewery.
  • SCAD (Savannah College of Art and Design) launches an applied degree in artificial intelligence.
• Disaster Relief Infrastructure:
  • Convoy of Hope opens a regional distribution center in northwest Georgia, slashing disaster response times in the region.
  • “That regional distribution center there, just north of Atlanta, will cut our response time in half to many areas in the southeast...” — Ethan Forhett, Convoy of Hope [05:46]
• Local Environmental Efforts:
  • Tybee Island Marine Science Center releases “Westie” the loggerhead sea turtle with a satellite tracker, promising weekly updates.
• Public Health Outreach:
  • New 3.5-minute public health segments debut during Friday night football broadcasts, covering topics from drug overdose to hurricane safety.
  • “We thought while we had a captive audience, we would try to pass along some helpful information.” — Ginger Heidel, Georgia DPH [11:10]

---

Memorable Quotes

• “The tree canopy is completely gone.” — Campbell Vaughn, University of Georgia Extension [08:00]
• “At the hottest parts of the day in Augusta, we measure about a 10 degree difference between the sun and the shade.” — Sophie Grata [08:23]
• “I always try to tell people, don’t get so discouraged. I mean, yes, we won’t have 300 year old trees still, but in 80 years we can have a community forest again.” — Seth Hawkins [09:48]

---

Timestamps for Important Segments

• Cop City Charges Dropped: 00:40 – 02:27
• Special Election & Israel Delegation: 02:27 – 03:49
• Hyundai Immigration Raid: 03:49 – 05:46
• Convoy of Hope Disaster Center: 05:46 – 06:45
• Augusta After Hurricane Helene: 06:45 – 09:57
• Tybee Sea Turtle Release: 10:04 – 11:10
• Friday Night Public Health Segments: 11:10 – 11:22

---

This episode offers an incisive look at legal, economic, environmental, and community challenges facing Georgia, capturing voices from the courtroom to the neighborhoods and providing practical context for listeners across the state.

Transcript

[Sam]

Foreign.

[Chase McGee]

Welcome to the Georgia Today Podcast. Here we bring you the latest reports from the GPB newsroom. On today's episode, Charges will likely be dropped for 61 defendants accused of trying to stop the construction of Atlanta's controversial police and fire training center new details on the massive immigration rate at a Hyundai plant in southeast Georgia and a look at how Augusta is recovering after Hurricane Helene destroyed the city's urban forest.

[Seth Hawkins]

We want to make sure that people plant the right tree in the right place to make sure that we're being sustainable and resilient towards future events such as this.

[Chase McGee]

Today is Tuesday, September 9th. I'm Chase McGee, and this is Georgia Today. Charges against 61 defendants accused of a conspiracy to halt the construction of the Atlanta Public Safety Training center are likely to be dropped. Fulton County Judge Kevin Farmer made the announcement this afternoon. Judge Farmer said he didn't believe Attorney General Chris Carr had the authority to secure the indictments two years ago under Georgia's RICO law, saying Carr should have sought governor Brian Kemp's permission before pursuing the case. Defendants faced a wide variety of charges, from throwing Molotov cocktails to supplying food to protesters occupying the woods that the training center would be built on. The case was slowed by procedural issues over the past two years, including what another judge called gross negligence after prosecutors shared privileged emails between defendants and their attorneys. Farmer says he believes five of the defendants will still face domestic terrorism charges under a 2017 law that broadened the definition of the charge. None of the defendants have been tried yet. Gwinnett county will get a new member of the state House midway through the term of State Representative Shelly Hutchinson. Congress Governor Brian Kemp on Monday set a special election for November 4th to replace the Snellville Democrat. Hutchinson announced her retirement in July and stepped down in August, citing a serious health crisis in her family. She's endorsed the county's Democratic Party first Vice Chair Akbar Ali to replace her. Qualifying for the election will begin on September 15th. Five Georgia lawmakers are planning a diplomatic trip to Israel next week, where they're expected to meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other top officials. Officials GPB's Donna Lowry has more.

[Donna Lowry]

The bipartisan group of state legislators includes three Republicans, Senators Russ Goodman, Steve Gooch and Representative Brent Cox, and Democratic Representatives Yasmin Neal and Esther Panitch. They will join a delegation of 250 lawmakers from each of the 50 states invited by the Israeli Foreign Ministry. Senator Goodman is from South Georgia's Clinch County. He says it's about continuing to foster the friendships between the two allies.

[Sam]

They haven't just told me this specifically, but I would imagine that one of the reasons that they're putting this trip together is they want to be able to kind of tell their side of the story and show people what, you know, what's, what's going on there.

[Donna Lowry]

Goodman is returning to Israel nearly two years after arriving with his mother to visit the Holy Land. The very day Hamas leveled an attack on the country Oct. 7, 2023, the.

[Sam]

Airport in Tel Aviv was shut down due to Hamas rockets. And you know, we explored at one point trying to take a boat to Cyprus. It was quite, quite an experience. You know, being at the Ambassador Hotel there in Jerusalem and hearing machine gun fire from the balcony and all, you know, pretty surreal.

[Donna Lowry]

You can hear our full conversation with Goodman on GPB's Battleground ballot box podcast for GBB News. I'm Donna Lowrey.

[Chase McGee]

An immigration attorney says many South Korean workers detained in a US Immigration raid at a Hyundai plant in southeast Georgia were brought in for highly specialized work that Americans aren't trained to perform. Atlanta attorney Charles Cook represents four South Koreans who were among 475 workers rounded up in the raid last week west of Savannah. They included 300 Korean nationals. Cook says most had come for short term jobs installing equipment for producing electric vehicle batteries, work he said would take about three to five years to train someone in the US to do. Neither the US Nor South Korea has revealed details about all the workers visas, but it's not unusual for foreign companies to save time and money by sending workers from abroad to set up U.S. factories and then train U.S. workers. Anheuser Busch is pledging $9 million towards improvement at its beer production facility in Northwest Georgia. On Monday, the company said that investment will go towards upgraded brewing equipment to increase production at the plant in Cartersville. Missouri based Anheuser Busch opened the facility in 1993. It currently produces 48 different products, including Michelob Ultra, shipped to 32 US states. In 2023, the company said it had more than 400 people working there. The Savannah College of Art and Design has launched an applied degree in artificial intelligence. The college announced the new program on Monday, the first day of fall semester classes at the private arts school with campuses in Savannah and Atlanta. An international faith based disaster relief agency has opened a regional distribution center in northwest Georgia. Convoy of Hope last month opened the 125,000 square foot facility near Cartersville. Organization spokesman Ethan Forhett says the site was chosen because it's far enough inland to escape the worst of any storm and and Convenient to major interstate highways.

[Sam]

That regional distribution center there, just north of Atlanta, will cut our response time in half to many areas in the southeast, because now we can within hours have our team there on the ground, and it'll save at least a day's worth of driving From Missouri, where our team had been headquartered.

[Chase McGee]

The distribution center is stocked with food, water, paper goods and hygiene supplies, among other items. Convoy of Hope responded to 99 disasters last year, including hurricane Helene. It's the city of Augusta's first summer since hurricane Helene pummeled its urban forest. And so far, there's been no major investment to replant what was lost. As Augusta continues recovering from storm damage almost a year later, GPB Sophie Grata says more on how losing trees has changed the city and the struggle to get them back.

[Sophie Grata]

Go through here.

[Campbell Vaughn]

Driving around Augusta with University of Georgia extension coordinator Campbell Vaughn is like time traveling back to the days just after hurricane Helene.

[Sophie Grata]

I mean, there was an oak tree on this house right here that was. It had to be three feet in diameter.

[Campbell Vaughn]

We make frequent stops in neighborhoods that lost acres of towering pine trees.

[Sophie Grata]

It's a lot of pine trees by.

[Campbell Vaughn]

Houses that were crushed or lost.

[Sophie Grata]

Power lines down everywhere.

[Campbell Vaughn]

They're still empty and in repair.

[Sophie Grata]

God, this house. After house, after house was just destroyed in Augusta.

[Campbell Vaughn]

Vaughn is a trusted source on landscaping. He has an almost weekly column in the local paper about it. After Helene, friends, neighbors and family called him asking for help with the trees in their yard.

[Sophie Grata]

Everybody's kind of just needed somebody to kind of vent to and just say, is everybody in as bad a shape as we are?

[Campbell Vaughn]

Not only has the loss of trees changed the landscape of the so called Garden City, but it's left lots of houses without shade. Outside one house in west Augusta, Vaughn lays aerial photos of the area side by side on the hood of his car. They were taken three years apart before and after the storm.

[Sophie Grata]

This is where we are in this parking lot right right here.

[Campbell Vaughn]

The tree canopy is completely gone. Vaughn pulls out a temperature gun. He's been doing this a lot lately to see just how hot it gets in places that lost their trees. Here the surface of the ground is over 100 degrees and that's on grass.

[Sophie Grata]

I mean, that's 100, 103.

[Campbell Vaughn]

He measures under some shade.

[Sophie Grata]

And then that would be 87, 16.

[Campbell Vaughn]

Degrees cooler on a July day. We also measure what's called the feels like temperature using a wet bulb thermometer. 84.9 in the shade. At the hottest parts of the day in Augusta, we measure about a 10 degree difference between between the sun and the shade. Augusta still hasn't fully recovered from Hurricane Helene, and it's running short of cash as a result of damage. At a recent County Commission meeting, Timothy Schroer of the Finance department warned local leaders of a nearly $11 million budget shortfall. The city is still waiting on state and federal emergency money to cover storm cleanup, and it's not clear whether they'll get it.

[Sophie Grata]

So that's my other concern is at the end of the year, do we show a $60 million fund balance or do we show a $9 million fund balance?

[Campbell Vaughn]

That leaves little room for city funded recovery efforts or the replanting of Augusta's trees. Limited surveys by the Georgia Forestry Commission suggest about 20 football fields worth of tree canopy was lost in Augusta just on public property, and that was just.

[Seth Hawkins]

In the central business district of Augusta.

[Campbell Vaughn]

Seth Hawkins of the Georgia Forestry Commission has advice for people replanting on their own.

[Seth Hawkins]

We want to make sure will plant the right tree in the right place to make sure that we're being sustainable and resilient towards future events such as this in Augusta.

[Campbell Vaughn]

That could look like planting native Georgia trees with roots that stabilize the soil.

[Seth Hawkins]

I always try to tell people, don't get so discouraged. I mean, yes, we won't have 300 year old trees still, but in 80 years we can have a community forest again.

[Campbell Vaughn]

Or at least the next generation of Augustans can. For GPB News, I'm Sophie Gradas in Augusta.

[Chase McGee]

Stay tuned to GPB News all this week on radio and at visit gpb.org storms for what you need to know about hurricane preparedness in Georgia. The Tybee Island Marine Science center released a loggerhead turtle named Westie into the ocean over the weekend. Westie was in captivity for three years. She was originally found as a hatchling that couldn't make it out of her nest on Ausabaw Island. Videos on the science center's social media page show dozens of spectators came out to wish Westie safe travels. Westie was released with a satellite tracker, the first sea turtle from the center to be fitted, the Trekker. The center plans to post updates of Westie's location on its website and social media channels each Wednesday. Those tuning in to Friday Night Football on Georgia's coast may notice a new public health segment. It's part of a collaboration between the Georgia Department of Public Health and local television station wsav. Public information officer Ginger Heidel says topics range from talking about drug overdose prevention to vaccine availability and hurricane preparedness.

[Campbell Vaughn]

These are people who may not always watch the news if we do something with our news segment, but they might be more interested in tuning into your local football games. We thought while we had a captive audience, we would try to pass along.

[Chase McGee]

Some helpful information, heidel says. Some of the 3 1/2 minute segments feature local public health experts. Coastal public health covers eight counties with a staff of over 300. Each of Georgia's 18 public health districts have their own programming and resources. That's it for today's edition of Georgia Today. If you'd like to learn more about these stories, visit gpb.org news if you haven't hit subscribe yet on this podcast, take a moment right now and keep us current in your podcast feed. Got feedback? We'd love to hear it. Email us@georgia todaypb.org I'm Chase McGee. We'll see you tomorrow.

[Sam]

Sam.