Judge dismisses Olympic bombing suit - again

ATLANTA - A State Court judge has ruled again that the Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games is immune from a lawsuit brought by victims of the 1996 Centennial Olympic Park bombing. <br> <br> Judge Charles Carnes had twice before said ACOG was shielded from liability by the Georgia Recreational Property Act of 1965, which was designed to encourage property owners to make land available to the public. <br> <br> The park bombing killed one woman and injured more than 100 other people. In 1998 and 1999, Carnes dismissed separate lawsuits for more than $100 million filed by some of the victims who claimed ACOG failed to provide proper security in the park. <br> <br> Last year, the Georgia Supreme Court ruled that Carnes had to review the economic workings of ACOG to determine whether it should be immune. <br> <br> Plaintiff lawyers argued that while ACOG was nonprofit, it used the park as a money-making venture and should be as liable as any other enterprise. <br> <br> Gilbert Deitch, who represented the families of Alice Hawthorne of Albany, who was killed, and her 14-year-old daughter Fallon Stubbs, who was wounded, said ``the overall game plan for the Olympics was to make money.&#39;&#39; <br> <br> ``And the Olympic Park was the gathering place so they could promote the Olympics worldwide,&#39;&#39; Deitch said. <br> <br> Carnes said Friday that while the park had commercial aspects, the scales tipped to ACOG. <br> <br> The judge did say ACOG had a duty to protect the people in the park, now controlled by the state, even if it could not be held liable. <br> <br> ``It may have been they allowed too many people to come into Olympic Park,&#39;&#39; said Carnes, noting evidence that the park was too overcrowded for police to move people from the suspected bomb before the blast. <br> <br> ``They had metal detectors at most of the other venues,&#39;&#39; Carnes said. <br> <br> ACOG attorney Ryan Mock Jr. said Carnes&#39; ruling Friday effectively ended the case. <br> <br> ``This case is obviously going up to the appellate courts, but we just won today,&#39;&#39; Mock said. <br> <br> James Sadd, a lawyer representing 37 people wounded by the bomb&#39;s shrapnel, said they would appeal Carnes&#39; ruling. <br> <br> ``Certainly he gutted the lion&#39;s share of our case,&#39;&#39; Sadd said.