Former Chief Magistrate Bryant Cochran and Angela Garmley. Garmley's accusations against Cochran initiated a state investigation that led to the judge's resignation.ROME, Ga. -- How well do you know Bryant Cochran, the former Murray County magistrate, the one who federal prosecutors say set up an innocent woman to get arrested and humiliated and threatened with years in prison?
That was the key question, asked several times by several attorneys to several prospective jurors in U.S. District Court on Tuesday, the beginning of a criminal trial against Cochran. He is accused of using his power to pressure a woman into becoming his mistress two years ago, then organizing a conspiracy to plant drugs in her car after she filed an ethics complaint.
Today, when the defense and the prosecution launch opening arguments at 10 a.m., Cochran will stare down charges of conspiring against someone's rights, depriving someone of civil rights, conspiring to distribute a controlled substance and intimidating a witness. That last charge carries the harshest sentence: up to 20 years in prison.
On Tuesday, Defense Attorney Page Pate and Assistant U.S. Attorney William McKinnon Jr. lobbed a series of questions toward a group of potential jurors, searching for which ones would be impartial.
They asked if anyone had ever been a victim of sexual harassment. They asked if anyone had ever been accused of sexual harassment. They asked if anyone was in law enforcement, or used to be in law enforcement, or knew someone who was in law enforcement.
But, over and over again, the lawyers asked what the potential jurors knew of Cochran. One woman from rural Murray County said she has known him since she was a child. Another woman went to high school with him.
More frequently, though, people recognized Cochran from news reports. That's what the lawyers wanted to know: What -- if anything -- have you heard about Cochran's supposed criminal activity?
Cochran has been the subject of a high-profile investigation for more than two years. In April 2012, a citizen named Angela Garmley visited Cochran in his office and asked him to issue a warrant against three people.
While there, Garmley says, Cochran told her he wanted a mistress. She says he asked her to come back to his office wearing a dress but no underwear and to send him lewd pictures.
In July 2012, Garmley filed a complaint with the Georgia Judicial Qualifications Commission. While looking into Cochran, JQC investigators found an unrelated form of abuse. He was signing blank warrant and letting police officers write whatever they wanted on the forms, giving law enforcement carte blanche to arrest people and search their property without approval from a judge.
Cochran resigned. But the day before he left office, the Murray County Sheriff's Office arrested Garmley for possession of methamphetamine. Those charges didn't stick.
Members of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation dropped the case against Garmley when they learned that a man who happened to be Cochran's tenant had stuck a metal tin filled with the drugs in her wheel well. The tenant later pleaded guilty to conspiracy charges.
The Murray County deputy and captain who arrested Garmley, meanwhile, lost their jobs and also went to federal prison on charges of obstruction.
On Tuesday, attorney on both sides asked how much potential jurors had heard about the whole episode.
Ideally, lawyers want jurors who enter the courtroom knowing nothing about Cochran and what prosecutors say he did. Barring that, though, lawyers want the jurors to at least be able to check their preconceptions at the courtroom door.
So, how much did the people know?
"Just a bunch of hearsay on the television," said one man when brought into the room by himself. "Solicitation for sex. And then the woman got caught with drugs."
"I just heard about allegations," someone else later said. "Something to do with sex."
"I heard there was potentially a relationship!" said a third person.
Another man said he knew a little from the news, and a little more from some friends in law enforcement. He already had an opinion about whether Cochran was guilty. He still promised he could be fair, but ...
"I don't want to be here," he said, "and I don't want to come back."
The attorneys decided it was best not to pick him.
Contact Staff Writer Tyler Jett at tjett@timesfreepress.com or at 423-757-6476.