Atlanta drug cops face sentencing

ATLANTA, Feb. 22 (UPI) -- Georgia prosecutors say two of three former Atlanta police officers who covered up a woman's slaying in a botched drug raid deserve long prison sentences.

Former narcotics officers Jason Smith, Arthur Tesler and Gregg Junnier have pleaded guilty to conspiring to deny the civil rights of 92-year-old Kathryn Johnston, who in 2006 was shot to death in her apartment in a fusillade of police bullets.

At this week's sentencing, prosecutors are seeking more than 12 years imprisonment for Smith and 10 years for Tesler, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported Sunday. Authorities are seeking a "substantial reduction" to Junnier's 10-year sentence because he cooperated as a witness.

The undercover officers fired 36 bullets at Johnston after going to her home on a bogus drug tip. The elderly woman had fired a single shot at the narcotics team, whom prosecutors said went to "elaborate" lengths to cover up the slaying, including planting drug evidence.

Community leaders told the Journal-Constitution the shooting eroded public trust in the Atlanta Police Department, which dismantled and later rebuilt its narcotics department. County prosecutors say they were forced to revisit evidence in scores of pending drug cases.