COLUMBUS, Ga. (WRBL) - District Attorney Mark Jones is making a big announcement involving one of Columbus’s biggest cases. In an interview with News 3, Jones said he will be appointing a special prosecutor to bring the police officers who are allegedly involved in the death of Hector Arreola in front of a grand jury.
Hector Arreola died while in police custody in January of 2017 and GBI ruled his death a homicide in August of 2020.
In February 2020 it was announced Jones would seek legal action against these officers. He explained his decision to hire a special prosecutor comes from his understanding of the unique challenges prosecuting police officers can bring.
"They have certain procedural, I guess safeguards in our law that make it really difficult to indict them, to go after them when something goes wrong," said Jones. "So you know that’s one of my campaign promises was to hold police accountable so that’s what I want to do."
The Arreola family said Jones contacted them a few months ago and let them know about the hiring of a special prosecutor.
"What we want, you know the end state, there’s accountability and there’s people held accountable and people are, you know are dealt with accordingly," said Rodrigo Arreola, Hector Arreola's father. "If he feels hiring a special attorney will get the job done, then by all means we’ll support that."
The Arreola's have a civil case against the officers that will be heading to court on Aug. 9. Jones said he'll be waiting to bring the officers in front of a grand jury until after the civil case is finished.
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