Macon NAACP voices concern over Bibb DA’s handling of cases
The head of the Macon branch of the NAACP on Monday spoke out against the county’s district attorney over what the civil-rights group contends are racial disparities in how some cases are prosecuted.
At a news conference outside the Bibb County Courthouse, Gwenette Westbrooks, local NAACP president, voiced concerns regarding cases where “we feel ... there has been injustice.”
Westbrooks raised questions about a pending rape charge against a black man and the handling of an unrelated case involving a white man who officials have said claimed that a pair of black men carjacked and kidnapped him.
“We feel that the color of a person’s skin should not have any bearing on the way a case is prosecuted. And that’s what we are seeing. There is a lot of disparities in the way these cases are handled,” Westbrooks said.
Ronnie Antwon Smith
Westbrooks discussed the false carjacking-and-kidnapping episode as well as a pending rape charge against a local man named Ronnie Antwon Smith.
In April, the NAACP contacted the DA’s office to inquire about pending warrants against Smith, who is in custody in Oklahoma on unrelated charges and not set to be released until next summer, according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons website.
Smith had been charged with misdemeanor sexual battery in Macon, according the DA’s office. But after prosecutors were contacted by the NAACP, prosecutors read over the allegation against Smith and determined Smith should have been charged with the more serious offense of rape.
Westbrooks on Monday called for Smith’s release, saying the woman who made the allegation now wants to drop the charges and that, were it not for the pending warrant here, Smith would have been released from federal custody early due to the COVID-19 outbreak.
Westbrooks on Monday said the county needed a DA who doesn’t take “the law into his own hands.”
The DA, David Cooke, who is white, is facing a challenger in his re-election bid next week, Anita Reynolds Howard, who is black.
Cooke on Monday spoke to reporters regarding some of the NAACP’s concerns and said that Westbrooks had sent a letter to his office last week and mentioned how Smith “is waiting to be released, but an active warrant (in Macon) for rape is preventing his release. Our records show the new arrest warrant has not yet been served on Mr. Smith.”
Westbrooks said Cooke is trying to get the alleged victim “to press charges when she’s clearly told them ... that she did not want to press charges.”
The NAACP is asking that Cooke, if he is not going to dismiss the pending warrant on Smith, “to bring (Smith) home because they have released him in Oklahoma. Bibb County is the hold up,” Westbrooks said.
She described the rape allegation as a matter that stemmed from “a domestic situation.”
“At any time,” Westbrooks told reporters, “if I felt that (Cooke) was doing his job to make sure that (the victim) was protected, then I would not be standing here. She’s given clear instructions that she ... didn’t want to pursue it.”
When contacted by The Telegraph, Cooke said of the alleged victim, “Although people are pressuring her to ask that (the case) be dropped, we have no indication she wants the case to be dismissed.”
A false report
At her news conference outside the courthouse Monday, Westbrooks also raised questions about a recent case in which a white man, Christopher Keys, was said to have reported to the police that he had been carjacked and kidnapped by a pair of black men.
Sheriff’s officials later said that proved false and that Keys had apparently been robbed after arranging a Craigslist meeting with another man at a local motel. Keys has since been charged with misdemeanor solicitation of sodomy.
Westbrooks said prosecutors have brought solicitation of sodomy charges against a black man here and made it a felony case. Solicitation of sodomy is typically only a felony when the alleged offense involves the solicitation of a person under the age of 18.
Westbrooks said the Keys case was concerning because he was said to have “made a false report that he was kidnapped ... and robbed by two black men.”
“To implicate that you were kidnapped and robbed by two black men,” Westbrooks said, “he felt very comfortable with knowing that people would believe that. ... That’s a very serious accusation. ... Some black young man could have been arrested, charged and convicted.”
She said an additional charges of false report of a crime, also a misdemeanor, should be brought against Keys, a suggestion that the DA on Monday agreed with. But the case against Keys, because it is a misdemeanor, is handled in state court and does not come under Cooke’s purview.
The DA addressed Westbrooks’ hope for cases to be handled fairly, saying, fairness is “a concern of ours as well, and it’s why we consider each case on its individual evidence, no matter the race of the victim or the defendant.”