By Russ Bynum
SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) --Authorities broke a promise to grant a filmmaker immunity from prosecution when they charged her with crimes in a fatal train collision during shooting of a movie about singer Gregg Allman, the woman's attorneys said.
Hillary Schwartz was working as an assistant director on the ill-fated "Midnight Rider" movie Feb. 20 when a freight train plowed into the crew on a railroad bridge spanning the Altamaha River in rural Wayne County. The crash killed Sarah Elizabeth Jones, a 27-year-old camera assistant from Atlanta, and injured six other crew members.
Schwartz is one of four people charged with involuntary manslaughter and trespassing. Schwartz's attorneys filed court documents Monday asking a judge to dismiss the charges against her. They said prosecutors got her to talk by assuring Schwartz she was a witness, not a suspect. Less than two months after she gave authorities an interview, Schwartz was indicted.
Schwartz's motion included a copy of a May 29 letter from John B. Johnson, an assistant district attorney, asking Schwartz to return to Georgia from California for an interview with prosecutors and sheriff's investigators.
"I have talked with Jackie Johnson, the district attorney, and we both agree and it is the office opinion, that your client is only a witness in this case," the letter says. "It does not appear from any of our investigation that she is culpable in any crime involving the incident on the railroad trestle in February."
Jackie Johnson said Tuesday she was looking into the allegation. Her office has two weeks to file a response.
"I'm not aware of any immunity agreement," she said.
A March 9 trial has been scheduled for Schwartz; the movie's director, Randall Miller; his wife and business partner, Jody Savin; and executive producer Jay Sedrish. CSX Transportation, which owns the railroad trestle, has said in previous court filings that it twice denied the filmmakers permission to shoot on its tracks, each time in writing.
Sheriff's investigators have said the crew had permission to be on property surrounding the tracks that is owned by forest products company Rayonier.
Production on "Midnight Rider," based on the life of the Allman Brothers Band singer, was halted after the train collision.
Defense attorneys say Schwartz sat for an interview with authorities on July 29, less than three weeks after a grand jury indicted Miller, Savin and Sedrish. Schwartz's lawyers say John Johnson again told her during their face-to-face meeting: "This interview is being done for the purpose of you being a witness and not being prosecuted in that case."
A grand jury indicted Schwartz on Sept. 10.
Schwartz's motion doesn't quote any prosecutor saying specifically that she had been promised immunity from prosecution.
Involuntary manslaughter is a felony carrying a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison. Criminal trespass is a misdemeanor punishable by no more than a year in prison.
Google Opens Its Defense In Antitrust Case Alleging Monopoly Over Online Ad Technology
Google opened its defense against allegations that it holds an illegal monopoly on online advertising technology Friday with witness testimony saying the industry is vastly more complex and competitive than portrayed by the federal government.
"The industry has been exceptionally fluid over the last 18 years," said Scott Sheffer, a vice president for global partnerships at Google, the company's first witness at its antitrust trial in federal court in Alexandria.
The Justice Department and a coalition of states contend that Google built and maintained an illegal monopoly over the technology that facilitates the buying and selling of online ads seen by consumers.
Google counters that the government's case improperly focuses on a narrow type of online ads — essentially the rectangular ones that appear on the top and on the right-hand side of a webpage. In its opening statement, Google's lawyers said the Supreme Court has warned judges against taking action when dealing with rapidly emerging technology like what Sheffer described because of the risk of error or unintended consequences.
Google says defining the market so narrowly ignores the competition it faces from social media companies, Amazon, streaming TV providers and others who offer advertisers the means to reach online consumers.
Justice Department lawyers called witnesses to testify for two weeks before resting their case Friday afternoon, detailing the ways that automated ad exchanges conduct auctions in a matter of milliseconds to determine which ads are placed in front of which consumers and how much they cost.
The department contends the auctions are finessed in subtle ways that benefit Google to the exclusion of would-be competitors and in ways that prevent... Read More