A former East Point police sergeant accused of sexually assaulting women and teenage girls while on duty is set to appear in Fulton County court Monday for a retrial on 10 remaining charges. Richard Gooddine, once a decorated sergeant with the department, has maintained his innocence throughout years of legal proceedings that trace back to a 2018 traffic stop.
Gooddine originally faced 17 offenses, including child molestation, sexual assault by a law enforcement officer, and violating his oath of office, according to WSB-TV. Prosecutors said Gooddine assaulted women and children while searching them during arrests or after first gaining their trust. He is accused of inappropriately touching three women and two teenage girls in East Point, Georgia.
A Jury That Couldn't Agree
At Gooddine's March 2022 trial, a jury acquitted him of seven charges, including a not-guilty finding on child molestation, but deadlocked on 10 others after roughly 10 hours of deliberation, the station's report notes. The hung counts included an aggravated sexual battery charge. Jurors later said the impasse stemmed from a single juror who believed Gooddine was innocent and refused to engage in deliberations.
That breakdown became public after a juror emailed the court reporting that the holdout sat shaking her head in agreement during the defense's presentation, according to AJC.com. The judge delivered what's known as an Allen charge, urging jurors to keep working toward a verdict, before ultimately accepting the partial result. Prosecutor Yolanda Mack said at the time that she would pursue a retrial if the jury could not reach agreement on the remaining charges, per the same account. Gooddine's defense has argued that the alleged victims had ulterior motives and fabricated the accusations, per WSB-TV.
Termination and a Decade-Old Complaint
Gooddine was terminated as an East Point police sergeant on August 22, 2018, after an internal affairs investigation found he violated department policy following allegations that he sexually assaulted a 15-year-old girl during a curfew stop, according to FOX 5 Atlanta. The firing came two days after the initial complaint was filed with East Point police. That case wasn't the first time Gooddine had drawn scrutiny: the Georgia Bureau of Investigation looked into a sexual offense complaint involving a minor in 2011, but Fulton County prosecutors declined to press charges at the time, citing concerns about re-traumatizing the victim during a trial.
Following his termination, Fulton County authorities issued 15 arrest warrants, and Gooddine surrendered on August 31, 2018. A grand jury indictment ultimately covered alleged offenses against five female victims, including two under age 16, expanding what began as a single complaint into a case spanning incidents dating back to 2011, according to AJC.com. Prosecutors also accused Gooddine of attempting to intimidate and stalk the 15-year-old victim and her mother at a hospital hours after the alleged assault, an incident that led hospital security to escort him off the property and prompted a separate charge for threatening the victim and her mother. A Fulton County Superior Court judge set his bond at $500,000, with conditions that included house arrest, GPS ankle monitoring, and a ban on contacting any victims or minors under 17.
Appeals Court Trims the Indictment
Before the case could return to trial, Gooddine appealed, arguing the trial court should have dismissed three of the charges — one count of child molestation and two counts of sexual assault by a law enforcement officer. In June 2025, the Court of Appeals of Georgia agreed in Gooddine v. State, ruling that prosecutors failed to give him the statutory notice and grand jury opportunity required under Georgia law before indicting him, according to FindLaw.
That protection stems from Georgia Code § 17-7-52, which requires peace officers charged with crimes allegedly committed while performing official duties to receive advance notice and special grand jury rights before indictment, unless a court determines the officer stepped outside official duties to commit the crime, per Justia Law. The statute is meant to shield officers from frivolous prosecution tied to their official work, but it has fueled legal debate over when an officer's conduct crosses the line into purely criminal behavior.
What's Still on the Table
Gooddine is set to appear in Fulton County court Monday for a retrial covering the 10 charges tied to the alleged sexual assaults. Two Georgia statutes remain central to the case: § 16-6-5.1, which classifies sexual contact by a law enforcement officer with someone under their supervisory or police authority as sexual assault and bars consent as a defense, and § 16-6-22.2, which makes aggravated sexual battery a felony carrying a mandatory minimum of 25 years up to life in prison, along with mandatory sex offender registry listing. Those exposures remain in play as the retrial gets underway, with jurors once again asked to weigh accusations that have followed Gooddine since his firing eight years ago.
