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James Brown performs at the Live 8 Edinburgh concert on July 6, 2005 in Edinburgh, Scotland. The singer died the following year.
Atlanta
CNN
—
Three years ago, at the Fulton County District Attorney’s Office, a prosecutor was standing at a table cataloging items in evidence bags.
“These are the shoes,” Assistant District Attorney Michael Sprinkel said in an internal video of an inventory review meeting obtained by CNN through a public records request. “These are untested shoes believed to have been worn in James Brown’s hospital room on the night of his death.”
The item was submitted by a woman named Jack Hollander. She said she could prove that the Godfather of Soul was murdered. More than a dozen people who know Brown are demanding an autopsy or criminal investigation.
“He was murdered,” Brown’s manager Frank Copsidus said in a 2022 interview. “This is my interpretation, plain and simple. Someone wanted him dead.”
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After Hollander’s visit to the prosecutor’s office in 2020, the prosecutor agreed to look into her story.
However, the investigation was closed in 2021 and officials took no action in Brown’s death because the assistant district attorney determined there was “insufficient grounds to initiate a grand jury investigation.”
Then, something happened to the items in the evidence bag at the public prosecutor’s office. they disappeared.
District Attorney Fani Willis has not publicly acknowledged the disappearance. Nor has he given any indication that he is trying to clarify what happened. Several inquiries to CNN about the matter went unanswered. The missing item in the evidence bag is one of many mysteries that still surround Brown’s life and death.
In January, Mr. Hollander sued Mr. Willis in Fulton County Superior Court. The lawsuit seeks numerous documents related to the James Brown investigation and “any and all property and evidence filed, received, maintained, or in the possession of the Fulton County District Attorney’s Office in connection with such investigation.” rice field.
The prosecutor’s office has been strangely silent about the lost items, and that silence continued after the lawsuit was filed. Processserver reported that it filed a subpoena and complaint with DA Attorney General William McCombs on Jan. 17. Civil lawsuits require a response within 30 days.
However, the prosecutor did not respond. Months have passed. On April 3, Mr. Hollander’s attorneys filed a motion for default judgment.
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Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis speaks during a news conference on Aug. 29, 2022.
Finally, on May 8, the public prosecutor’s office responded. He pleaded with Judge Paige Reese Whitaker not to default against Mr. Hollander, and Mr. Willis’ lawyers blamed “legitimate neglect” for the delay in responding.
Deputy District Attorney Dexter Bond swore in an affidavit after McCombs served his sentence that he “sent subpoenas and complaints by email instead of handing them to the appropriate team members.” As a result, emails were missed and responses were not submitted in a timely manner. ”
CNN emailed McCombs asking about these allegations. McCombs wrote back and requested a copy of Bond’s affidavit, which the reporter sent. CNN later reached out to McCombs, but again did not receive a response.
Bond’s affidavit did not mention the issue of lost items. In 2022, an evidence officer at the public prosecutor’s office claimed that all the evidence had been sent to the Dutchman at her request, but Hollander said she never received it.
She received the box from the public prosecutor’s office on March 14, 2022, which was significantly smaller and lighter than the green plastic box she gave them. Few or none of the items in the evidence bag were in the box. The black nylon bag, which was once full, came back empty. Items missing from the green plastic trash bin included a calendar book, handwritten notes, and black stiletto heels mentioned by prosecutors in the video.
After the items disappeared, CNN requested all documentation related to the storage process. But Don Geary, DA’s legal counsel at the time, said no documents existed other than receipts for Hollander’s estate.
“Aren’t prosecutor’s office staff required to sign records when dealing with evidence?” the reporter wrote to Geary. “Isn’t there a system to keep evidence safe?”
“As you can imagine, there are no other documents for this property,” Geary replied.
About two months after Hollander received the package, William Chris Clark, Deputy Chief of Evidence, wrote an email to a colleague about the situation. This email was obtained by CNN he via a public records request.
Melissa Golden/Redux on CNN
Jack Hollander. Stopped by on tour with Carson & Barnes Circus in 2018.
“I am aware that Ms Hollander said there were other items that were handed over to the Attorney General’s Office[long before our time]but none of those items were in the container, A search of the room found no other items related to the incident,” Clark wrote. “(They could show up later if we had a full inventory in the warehouse.) This happened after her item had been shipped to her.”
Counsel Don Geary has since left the Fulton Attorney’s Office. He did not respond to calls for comment on the matter. CNN emailed DA spokesman Deputy District Attorney Jeff DeSantis to ask about Hollander’s lawsuit and potential missing evidence. Mr. Disantis did not respond.
CNN also emailed Willis, but received no response.Willis made national headlines Ongoing criminal investigation Former President Donald Trump.
In a recent phone interview with CNN, Mr. Hollander asked Mr. Willis to explain responsibility for the items lost from the evidence bag.
“She should have started an investigation,” Hollander said. “The FBI should open an investigation. No evidence is coming out of the district attorney’s office.”