More than 60 protesters of Atlanta ‘s new public safety training center, dubbed “Cop City,” are facing sweeping criminal charges due to efforts to halt construction.

A total of 61 activists have been indicted on charges of violating the state’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act. Some face additional charges of domestic terrorism and money laundering, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Most of those charged are not residents of Georgia.

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The charges were handed down last week in Fulton County court, with the case being prosecuted by Georgia Attorney General Christopher Carr’s office. A copy of the indictment is expected to be made available Tuesday.

In June, DeKalb County District Attorney Sherry Boston announced that she would withdraw her office from prosecuting cases relating to the training center. She claimed that there were differences in “prosecutorial philosophy” with the state attorney general’s office, per the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Fulton Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee was originally assigned to the case, but he filed an order of recusal on Tuesday. The case has been reassigned to Fulton County Superior Court Judge Kimberly Adams.

This is the latest development in the “Stop Cop City” movement that has turned into spurts of violence, resulting in several arrests and the death of one protester.

“Cop City” is the name given to the public safety training center, which is being constructed in a 300-acre forest in an unincorporated area of DeKalb County. Protesters refer to the forest by several names, including the Weelaunee Forest, named after the Muscogee (Creek) native tribe that occupied the land up until the 1820s.

The training center is intended for use by the Atlanta Police Department. The new center is slated to have a mock city, hence the name “Cop City,” and will also have a “burn building” for firefighters, a firing range, a driving course, stables and pastures for police horses, and kennels for K-9 dogs.

While the training center website says the site is not for militarized police training, many residents are concerned the creation of the center will escalate violent encounters between police and community members, particularly young black men.

In June, the Atlanta City Council agreed to allocate $30 million toward the development of the $90 million, 85-acre facility.

Last week, the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals granted the city of Atlanta a temporary delay in the injunction handed down on July 27 by a federal judge. The injunction allowed non-Atlanta residents to collect signatures and extended the collection time frame by an additional 60 days for the petition drive, which needs 58,231 signatures, to oppose the training center.

The court has not clarified the ruling, which caused confusion for many training center opponents, as of Tuesday morning, per the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Activists have occupied the construction area since before May 2022, when police began arriving to remove protesters from the forest. Officers were met with rocks, Molotov cocktails, and other projectiles, as well as spray-painted messages on rocks and vandalized equipment.

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In January, the fight between officers and protesters escalated dramatically, resulting in the death of 26-year-old Manuel Esteban Paez Teran, who was shot and killed on Jan. 18. He died in a shootout with police that also injured a Georgia State Patrol officer during a sweep of the protester’s forest encampment.

Several Georgia state legislators requested that Attorney General Merrick Garland investigate the fatal shooting of Paez Teran, but as of now, the Justice Department has not launched a federal investigation.