The Atlanta Eagle case put off until Nov. 3

By Rhonda Cook

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

A defense attorney and prosecutor have six weeks to resolve charges that came out of a police raid of a  popular Midtown gay bar or a trial date will set for early January, an Atlanta Municipal Court judge said Tuesday.

Eight people are scheduled to be arraigned Nov. 3. Four of them were in court Tuesday morning -- co-owner Robert Kelley, manager David Shepherd, bartender Chris Lopez and doorman Ernest Buehl. All are charged with allowing dancers to perform without a license.

Dancers Leandro Apud, Anitono Bemitez, Tadareius Johnson and Robert Kline are charged with performing without a permit. None of the dancers were  in court Tuesday, but they were not required to attend.

The Sept. 10 raid of The Atlanta Eagle angered Atlanta's gay community.

Officers detained 62 patrons and some of them said they were handcuffed, placed on the floor for more than an hour and illegally searched.

Eight men were arrested.

The gay community has reacted to the raid by staging news conferences and filing numerous  updates and comments on the social networking site Twitter

APD found itself on the defensive.

A few days after the raid,  Atlanta Police Chief Richard Pennington held a news conference to defend his department's actions. The chief said undercover officers had seen illegal drug transactions and open sex at the club.

But the only charges  brought involved dancing without a permit.

Defense attorney Alan Begner and assistant solicitor Mary Stansel said it was possible the case could be resolved before the Nov. 3 arraignment. While this case was put off for six weeks, usually matters in Municipal Court are rescheduled no more than 30 days later.

"If by that date we have not reached a resolution, we'll ask that we go to trial," Stansel said.

This could be a relatively long trial for a Municipal Court case.

Begner said he may call as many 60 witnesses. He also noted that 25  officers were at the club for the raid and they  also may be called to testify.