Bryant CochranROME, Ga. -- Bryant Cochran has sat in court for a week now, watching people accuse him of sexually assaulting one female employee, looking through the phone of another female employee, framing a woman for a crime and ordering a childhood friend to lie to state investigators.
On Tuesday, he decided not to try to defend himself.
With the jury out of the room, his Atlanta attorneys on each side of him and his family seated behind him, Cochran told U.S. District Court Judge Harold Murphy that he did not want to take the stand in a case that involves six federal charges. If convicted, he could go to prison for two decades, maybe longer.
Murphy told Cochran that the jury is not allowed to count his decision not to testify against him. He told Cochran this was an important choice, one that should be made carefully, after much deliberation.
"Are you satisfied with the decision not to testify?" Murphy asked the former judge.
"Yes sir," Cochran said.
And with that, his lawyers announced that they had no more witnesses to call in his defense. One day earlier, attorney Page Pate told Murphy he thought he would need about 1 1/2 days to call all of Cochran's witnesses. Instead, Pate called just three people to the stand. The process took 1 1/2 hours.
The trial will resume this morning. Federal prosecutors plan to call one last witness before making closing arguments. Then, the jury will deliberate.
Cochran, a former Murray County magistrate, faces charges that range from depriving someone of civil rights, conspiring to distribute a controlled substance and intimidating a witness.
In August 2012, prosecutors say, Cochran ordered someone to plant methamphetamine on the car of Angela Garmley, who had recently told media outlets and the Judicial Qualifications Commission that Cochran sexually harassed her. Garmley's allegation forced Cochran to resign from office and promise the commission that he would never again try to be a judge.
When a Murray County deputy pulled Garmley over one night in August 2012, he couldn't find any drugs in her car. A Murray County sheriff's captain -- who happened to be Cochran's cousin -- called Cochran, who said the drugs were in a container attached to the underside of Garmley's car.
After the arrest, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation tried to figure out how Cochran knew Garmley had methamphetamine. Prosecutors say Cochran then told a childhood friend, Mike Winkler, to lie to the GBI and tell them that he gave Cochran a tip based on what he heard people around town saying.
On Tuesday, Winkler testified that he felt uncomfortable with Cochran's request.
"I thought he was my friend," Winkler told the jury.
Soon after Garmley's arrest, Winkler testified, he met Cochran outside Cochran's parents' house. Winkler said Cochran thought he was wearing a wire, so he had to lift his shirt above his stomach and turn around.
That's when Cochran told him to lie to the GBI, Winkler testified. But when he met with the investigators, Winkler didn't say he passed along any tips. At the same time, he also didn't tell investigators that Cochran asked him to lie to them.
He testified that he didn't want to throw himself in the middle of Cochran's drama. Months later, though, he told the new magistrate, Gale Buchner, who is related to Winkler. He testified that Buchner told him not to lie, and he then came clean to a pair of FBI agents.
The charge for this offense -- tampering with a witness -- carries the harshest sentence of any charge against Cochran: up to 20 years in federal prison.
On cross examination Tuesday, Pate said Winkler is lying -- he did actually give Cochran a tip. Pate pointed out that Winkler told Cochran that Garmley did drugs.
Phone records also show that Winkler called Cochran and one of Cochran's cousins several times in July and August 2012, before Garmley's arrest. Sometimes, these conversations lasted longer than 30 minutes.
More than two years later, Winkler said he couldn't remember what they talked about. They talked often because they were friends. And he told Cochran that Garmley did drugs -- everybody in town knew that.
But, he testified, he wasn't the mysterious source who helped the sheriff's office arrest Garmley.
"Did you tell [Cochran] where drugs might be in Angela Garmley's car?" Assistant U.S. Attorney William McKinnon Jr. asked Winkler.
"No," he said.
"Did you ever have any more detail about how she was carrying it?"
"No."
Contact staff writer Tyler Jett at tjett@timesfreepress.com or at 423-757-6476.