In legal twist, deputy convicted in jail death case after civil suit failed

The family of a Fulton County Jail detainee who was killed after an altercation with six deputies says they have justice now that one of the jailers has pleaded guilty in a case that attorneys said initially presented little hope of a resolution in the family’s favor.

Former Fulton County Sheriff’s Office deputy Arron Cook pleaded guilty to aggravated assault and violation of oath charges this week in the 2018 death of Antonio May. May died hours after he was taken into custody, and after, prosecutors said, May had been beaten, shocked with a Taser, tied to a chair, pepper-sprayed and hosed down in an altercation with jailers.

Cook is banned from working in law enforcement and some tangentially related fields, and he’ll be on probation for five years, plus 100 hours of community service, according to his sentence attached to the plea deal.

The five deputies who were also initially tied to the case with Cook are no longer facing charges, according to court documents. Their law enforcement certifications have been suspended as this case proceeded through the courts, according to state records.

The Fulton County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement it is “committed to uphold accountability, transparency, and due process.”

For May’s family, which has waited eight years through a drawn-out legal battle that went to the Georgia Supreme Court and back again, this is some measure of justice.

“At least one person was held responsible for this man’s tragic death,” said Michael Harper, the family’s attorney. ”That’s justice right there."

Cook’s attorney did not respond to a request for comment.

The case presents something of a legal rarity: It’s one of the few situations in which an officer is being held criminally liable but in which the family has lost its civil case.

And the legal fight over criminal liability for May’s death played out at the same time as another high-profile Georgia case involving a lawman allegedly strapping jail detainees to a chair. That case played out differently.

Clayton County’s former Sheriff Victor Hill was found guilty of violating detainees’ civil rights and sentenced to 10 months in a federal penitentiary. He was released in 2024 and is still facing a litany of civil lawsuits by detainees.

Zack Greenamyre, an Atlanta civil rights attorney not affiliated with the May case, represents some of the plaintiffs suing Hill in civil court. He noted the uniqueness of May’s family losing their civil suit even as the criminal proceedings still carried on, saying the civil claims were tossed on the basis of qualified immunity, which protects law enforcement officers from liability for actions done in the course of their jobs.

“I think that speaks to how qualified immunity can sometimes be especially perverse,” Greenamyre said. “It’s hard to reconcile the immunity decisions in that case with the course of criminal proceedings.”

May, 32, was arrested and taken to the Fulton jail in September 2018, accused of throwing rocks at the windows of the American Cancer Society building downtown, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution previously reported.

After an investigation into his death, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation said May’s confrontation ended with him being decontaminated from the pepper spray, after which he became unresponsive. Jail and medical staff performed CPR, but he was pronounced dead at the scene, the GBI said at the time.

The Fulton County District Attorney’s Office charged all six of the deputies with felony murder years later in 2021, and they pleaded not guilty. In the ensuing legal battle, the jailers argued up to the state high court they should be afforded the same rights as police officers when facing a grand jury indictment. Police officers can be present during grand jury proceedings on criminal allegations during their work duties — a unique right not afforded to most.

But the Georgia justices struck down that argument and sided with the Fulton DA, ruling deputies are not the same under the law because they only have authority inside the jail. The indictment was then allowed to proceed.

This week, the DA’s office entered a plea deal with one deputy, Cook, but dismissed all of the other charges. The DA’s office did not respond to questions about the decision not to prosecute the other deputies.

Scott Grubman, an attorney for one of the deputies, Kenesia Strowder, said the prosecutors likely saw the uphill battle they faced in pursuing felony murder charges against all six deputies. His client had little involvement in the altercation, but Cook, the deputy who pleaded guilty, may have had more, Grubman said.

The five deputies and their attorneys were prepared to argue they had qualified immunity in their actions, he said. Then, the DA dropped the charges.

“Everyone has to think about the risk for themselves based on the facts that are going to be applied to them,” Grubman said. “My assumption was that the state viewed officer Cook as situated differently than us because of his use of the Taser.”

Manny Arora, an attorney representing another one of the deputies whose charges were dismissed, said he doesn’t think the DA’s office could prove the cause of May’s death. Plus, after such a long, drawn-out case, it was likely easier to accept the lesser charges and probation sentence and move on.

“Inevitably, a lot of people just have to wave the white flag at some point,” Arora said. “They’ll take a reduced sentence just to make it go away.”

In cases involving qualified immunity, it can be difficult to obtain convictions because of how broadly the legal doctrine protects law enforcement officers when performing their duties.

Harper, the family’s attorney, said the conviction of a deputy in the death of an inmate can be difficult to come by at all.

“It’s extremely difficult because the laws are tilted in favor of law enforcement,” he said. “So for this officer to take some responsibility and plead guilty for the death of Antonio May is very rare.”

In the civil case, the family sued the deputies and the jail health care provider, saying May struggled with mental health issues and tested positive for amphetamines at the time of his arrest. It argued he died as a result of the jailers’ unreasonable use of force.