The trial for a former East Point police officer accused in multiple sexual assaults has been postponed due to questions about a witness list, officials said.
Richard Maurice Gooddine’s trial was scheduled to begin Monday, according to court documents. However, Gooddine’s defense counsel “asked for a continuance to review additional records related to the case,” Fulton County District Attorney’s Office spokesman Chris Hopper said in an emailed statement. A Fulton County judge granted the request, and the case was postponed until January.
Gooddine was indicted in September 2018 on 17 counts of inappropriate sexual contact with four female victims in 2011, 2016, 2017 and 2018, AJC.com previously reported. Two of the alleged victims were under the age of 16 at the time of the attacks. In one case, Gooddine allegedly sexually assaulted a 15-year-old girl and then stalked her and her mother at a hospital.
Thomas Reynolds, an attorney for one of the teenage victims, previously said his client, another girl and two boys were followed from a Waffle House by the officer. The officer approached the group when they stopped at Sykes Park in East Point.
MORE: Officer accused of sexually assaulting girl, stalking her at hospital
Reynolds said the officer let the girl and two boys go, but detained the 15-year-old for violating curfew.
The officer allegedly took the girl to the Village Highlands apartment complex and sexually assaulted her. According to Reynolds, the officer kept the girl for three hours before taking her home.
When the girl and her mother went to a hospital, Gooddine arrived and tried to intimidate her and keep her from reporting the incident, according to an indictment.
Hospital staff reportedly removed him from the property.
“In my nearly 15 years of experience as a prosecutor, I have never heard of a case where an assailant attempted to contact his victim while she was undergoing tests at the hospital,” Deputy District Attorney Melissa Redmon previously said in a statement. “His actions were unbelievable.”
In 2011, the Fulton County DA’s Office declined to prosecute Gooddine in a sexual battery and child molestation case, saying it would not have been in the best interest of the victim, AJC.com previously reported. He maintained his innocence in that case.
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In March 2016, a woman told police Gooddine “brushed against her breast” as he handcuffed her on a charge of driving with a suspended license, Channel 2 Action News reported. The woman, who was about 60 years old at the time, was stopped in front of a gas station, and she told investigators Gooddine appeared intoxicated, according to Channel 2. She said she felt uncomfortable during the frisk, which happened in front of her grandchild.
Gooddine was not equipped with a body camera at the time, the news station reported. Another officer who pulled up after the arrest said he never saw Gooddine do anything unprofessional.
In August 2017, a woman accused of shoplifting from a local Walmart alleged Gooddine pulled her pants down in his patrol car and fondled her, according to Channel 2. The woman told Gooddine’s partner, who wasn’t present during the incident.
Warrants were issued for Gooddine’s arrest Aug. 31, 2018, and he turned himself in shortly after. He pleaded not guilty to all 17 charges.
