Grant v. State

In Grant v. State, 227 Ga. App. 88, 91 (1) (488 SE2d 79) (1997) the Court found that the predicate acts for a RICO indictment were sufficiently described where the transactions which the State alleges are criminal racketeering charges are specific timber transactions involving specific persons, places, acreages, deals, and owners. The transactions are specifically identified by the numbered checks representing them; the checks are drawn on a certain bank on a certain date, made payable to a certain person. Although the amount is not stated to the penny in each described check, the check and circumstances of the check are sufficiently described to enable appellants to ascertain the precise amount, and to identify with specificity the particular act being prosecuted and thus enable appellants to mount a defense thereto, and to permit them to raise this prosecution as a bar to a future prosecution based on the same act. When the indictment is read as a whole, particular predicate acts are identified by identifying the negotiable instrument appellants received as to each described fraudulent transaction in each named county, and by naming and describing each false deed supporting a transaction. The indictments set out the alleged offense with sufficient specificity so as to apprise appellants of the particular charges they must meet, and to allow them to plead this prosecution as a jeopardy bar to future prosecution for the same acts. Supra, 227 Ga. App. at 91-92 (1).