NASHVILLE – A Tennessee judge ruled on Thursday that a special prosecutor who has come under fire for making anti-gay and anti-Islam remarks will continue to handle a young black activist’s court case.
The decision comes among a long series of developments involving Coffee County District Attorney Craig Northcott, who has faced increased scrutiny and calls to be investigated as he oversees a high-profile legal case involving student activist Justin Jones.
“It’s the public faith in the integrity of the justice system that’s at stake here. … We’re asking that [Jones] get a fair prosecutor and the appearance of a fair prosecutor,” Dominic Leonardo, Jones’ attorney, told Judge Dianne Turner.
Turner said Thursday that none of the complaints against Northcott were sufficient to dismiss him from the case. Moment before, Northcott described attempts to remove him as a “political stunt.”
FILE – In a Thursday, July 25, 2019 file photo, activist Justin Jones speaks to supporters and reporters after a hearing in Davidson County General Sessions Court in Nashville. Tennessee Judge Dianne Turner ruled on Thursday, August 15, 2019 that special prosecutor Coffee County District Attorney Craig Northcott, who has come under fire for making anti-gay and anti-Islam remarks, will continue to handle activist Justin Jones’s court case. (AP Photo/Jonathan Mattise, File)Northcott has been facing fallout after writing in a post on social media in April that Islam’s belief system is “evil, violent and against God’s truth” and that being Muslim is no different than “being part of the KKK, Aryan Nation, etc.”