Fayette County State Court Judge Fletcher Sams issued an order earlier this week that effectively ends a controversial case that has stretched out for more than a year.

Three members of a Peachtree City family were convicted last April of various charges in connection with an incident in the family home in 1998. Those verdicts were vacated by Sams in October, after he ruled that police entered the home improperly.

Kevin and Carolyn O'Keefe were found guilty by a six-member jury of obstruction of a law enforcement officer and maintaining a disorderly house, while son Thomas Patrick O'Keefe was convicted of simple battery.

Sams' ruling Monday was in response to a request by the prosecution to reconsider his previous ruling. The prosecution was “misktaken,” Sams said, in suggesting that a directed verdict of acquittal was inappropriate after a jury verdict.

“This court notes that the only difference between a directed verdict not withstanding a jury verdict, and a new trial and plea in bar, is semantics,” Sams wrote in his order. “The legal result is the same unless the state has additional evidence concerning the entry of the defendant's home.

“With the exception of the family pets, the court has already heard from every known possible witness to the police entry, and assumes the state has not withheld evidence.”

So the judge's official ruling, which he said would not affect the end result and would avoid needless appeals, was to grant the defendant's motion for a new trial, which he already asserts cannot be held based solely on the evidence currently before the court.

There remains a possibility that this case will continue in civil court. Attorney Teresa Weiner said after the October ruling that a federal lawsuit was likely against the Peachtree City Police Department and the city based on injuries suffered by Carolyn O'Keefe during the incident.

She is already on permanent disability, having had had one back surgery and facing another, according to Weiner, and testimony during the trial by her orthopedic surgeon that that the actions taken by police were tantamount to “a knee in the back.”

Efforts to reach Weiner for comment this week were unsuccessful by press time.

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