The former CEO of Glock could be released from prison this week after an appeals court reversed his convictions on theft and racketeering charges.
Prosecutors took too long to bring charges against Paul Jannuzzo, the Georgia Court of Appeals ruled.
Presiding Appeals Court Judge Gary Blaylock Andrews and Judges Carla Wong McMillian and Stephen Louis A. Dillard ruled that prosecutors had not brought the case against Jannuzzo in the required time and overturned both his convictions.
Jannuzzo’s attorneys filed papers Monday to remove the final hurdle to his freedom. He remains jailed on a contempt order from a 2012 divorce action, attorney John Da Grosa Smith said.
“We filed an emergency motion this morning seeking Mr. Jannuzzo’s immediate release,” Smith said Monday afternoon.
The motion states that “any period of incarceration that could have been imposed for criminal contempt has long since expired.”
A Cobb County jury in March 2012 found Jannuzzo guilty of stealing a pistol and conspiring to skim millions of dollars from the global weapons maker last year. He was sentenced to seven years in prison and 13 years of probation.
In 2009, Jannuzzo was indicted on charges he used unapproved loans, clone bank accounts and transfers, with the help of employee Peter Manown, to swindle more than $4.7 million from Glock, the Austrian company with a North American headquarters in Smyrna.
He also was accused of illegally keeping a custom handgun that belonged to the gun manufacturer.
Cobb County Assistant District Attorney John Melvin filed a motion on Monday to halt prosecution.
“There’s nothing left to prosecute,” Melvin said by phone. “The case should have been prosecuted back in the early 2000s.”
The statute of limitations for filing Georgia racketeering influenced and corrupt organizations charges is five years. The statute of limitations for theft by conversion is four years.
Jannuzzo’s lawyer maintains his client’s innocence.
“He’s been incarcerated since December 2009 for a crime that didn’t happen,” Smith said. “And we’ve been working diligently to ensure his release as a result of the decision from the court of appeals.”
Jannuzzo has been in the Jimmy Autry State Prison in Pelham in south Georgia.
A hearing on his possible release is scheduled for 1:30 p.m. Wednesday.
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