ATLANTA — A lawyer for the jailed leader of the Black Hammer Party on Wednesday disputed the state’s label of the extremist group as a street gang and described her client as “a model member of society.”
Attorney Stacey Flynn blasted prosecutors' case against Augustus Claudius Romain Jr. as “exceptionally weak” in a bond hearing in Fayette County Superior Court. She cast Romain’s Black Hammer Party as a charitable organization that works with the homeless, rather than a violent criminal organization that strong-arms donations from college students to help finance their operation, as prosecutors contend.
The 36-year-old Romain, who goes by the name Gazi Kodzo, faces charges of kidnapping, aggravated sodomy, aggravated assault, false imprisonment and participating in a criminal street gang. The charges stem from a 911 call placed July 19 by prospective group member Dalvin Moore claiming that he had been kidnapped and was being held in a locked garage at the house the group rented in Fayetteville.
