Original Article Runaway bride's case puts Georgia prosecutor in the spotlight Daniel Yee Associated Press Jul. 4, 2005 12:00 AM LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga. - A one-page, computer-printed letter mailed from Colorado leaves little doubt about the writer's opinion of Danny Porter: "What an idiot!!! Pressing charges because a woman freaked out." It's just one of the thousands of letters, cards and e-mails that the suburban Atlanta district attorney has received since he decided to prosecute runaway bride Jennifer Wilbanks. "It amazed me not only the amount of attention the case received but also the amount of feeling people had about a case that I considered a real minor case," Porter said in a recent interview. "False-statements cases we see all the time." Criticism is nothing new to the 50-year-old Gwinnett County prosecutor, who keeps a pair of samurai swords in his office and wears knit shirts on non-trial days with an embroidered gold badge that says "District Attorney." This year, Porter has made national headlines like few other small-town prosecutors. His prosecution of Wilbanks for lying to police about being kidnapped and raped was the fodder for weeks on talk radio and cable television shows. In addition, a national civil rights group has targeted Porter for protest after he refused to revisit the case of Frederick Williams, a Black man who died after being shocked with a Taser in jail. Porter persuaded a grand jury to indict Wilbanks, whose disappearance just days before her 600-guest wedding led to a national search that ended when she turned up in Albuquerque. She pleaded no contest to making false statements and was sentenced to two years' probation, 120 hours of community service and $2,550 in restitution. In the other case, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference has vowed to "shut Gwinnett County down" through sit-ins, marches and economic boycotts because Porter declined to show a videotape of the Taser incident to a grand jury. Porter says no one tells him what evidence to present in a courtroom. "Danny Porter got cold feet and caught the first Greyhound to Albuquerque," the Atlanta Journal-Constitution said in an editorial about his refusal to reopen the Williams case, comparing his lack of taking action with Wilbanks' flight from her wedding. "It is hard to believe that the grand jury would have declined to see the tape if Porter had believed it was important." Porter has spent his entire 24-year career with the Gwinnett Judicial District prosecutor's office.