Cochran Goes to Jail for Five Years
That was the sentence handed down today by a federal judge in Rome, Georgia.
Cochran was convicted of felonies including the false arrest of Angela Garmley in 2012.
Bryant Cochran was the chief magistrate in Murray county in 2012, when, according to testimony, he propositioned Angela Garmley in his office. When she rejected his advances, Cochran arranged to have meth planted under her car. She was arrested and charged.
But as events unfolded, Garmley was freed and Cochran found himself on the hot seat, although he was not indicted until May of 2014.
Attorney McCracken Poston has represented Garmley from the start.
MCCRACKEN POSTON, GARMLEY’S ATTORNEY "I thought it was a fair sentence….I did not expect the top end of the guidelines."
PAGE PATE, DEFENSE ATTORNEY "He is confident that we’re going to persue the appeal form..we are going to pursue the appeal..he wants another trial..it sounds crazy to say that I want to come back here and retry this case…but I really do."
During the investigation, two Murray county sheriff’s deputies were charged with planting the meth in her car.
They were both convicted and sent to prison for tempering with a witness.
Chattanooga attorney Stuart James also represented Garmley.
STUART JAMES, GARMLEY’S ATTORNEY "Today, Angie is completely a different person than the person I met. She’s a former meth addict, and let me say former, she’s a former drug user..she’s clean..she takes care of her family."
Cochran will report to a federal prison in Florida at a later date to begin serving his sentence.
JEFFERY DAVIS, FEDERAL PROSECUTOR "Whenever you have a public corruption, it creates a dynamic where the public doesn’t trust the government or its judges. Here, Mr. Cochran completely subverted the judiciary and basically used the bench to promote his personal agenda."
Another associate of Cochran’s, Clifford Joyce, was sentenced to 18 months in prison for actually planting the drugs under Garmley’s car.
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