The

convictions of three members of a Peachtree City family

were vacated by an order issued Tuesday in Fayette County

State Court.

Kevin and

Carolyn O'Keefe were found guilty by a six-member State

Court jury in April of obstruction of a law enforcement

officer and maintaining a disorderly house, while son

Thomas Patrick O'Keefe was convicted of simple battery.

The charges stemmed from an incident in 1998 where

Peachtree City police investigated a call about a

disturbance in the vicinity of the O'Keefe home.

Paul

Weiner, representing the O'Keefes, argued during the

four-day trial that police entered the home unnecessarily

and improperly, setting off a chain of events that

resulted in the arrest of his clients. Six months later,

Judge Fletcher Sams ultimately agreed.

Sams ruled

that "as a matter of law there was insufficient

probable cause to justify the initial entry into the

defendants' home, which therefore rendered the officer's

presence in the home illegal," according to his

written order.

Since the

charges came as a result of the defendants' response to

the police inside their home, "the convictions

cannot stand," he said.

The

defendants had submitted a motion for a new trial, but

Sams found that it was unnecessary and instead ordered a

directed verdict of not guilty.

According

to the order, prosecutors entered into evidence a 911

call from a home on Nettlecure Court, where the O'Keefes

live, at about 2:15 in the morning complaining of loud

noises behind the house. Upon answering the complaint,

officers found noise coming instead from the O'Keefe

home.

Several

people were found in the front yard, one of whom ran as

police approached. That person was caught and the others

secured on the front lawn, while an officer approached

the O'Keefes' front door and found it open.

The officer

"did not ring the doorbell, did not knock on the

door, and did not announce his presence, but proceeded

through the threshold of the front door toward the

defendants' kitchen, where he encountered Kevin

O'Keefe," the order stated. "All of the alleged

criminal violations of the O'Keefe defendants flow from

their response to the officers' presence in their

home."

None of the

officers saw or heard anything coming from inside the

house prior to their entry, and no complaint was received

wrote.

As the

trial commenced, neither the defense nor the prosecution

requested that the court define "probable

cause," and the court did not issue a definition,

according to Sams. That alone would be sufficient grounds

for a new trial, he said, but in this case it would not

be necessary, as he cited Fourth Amendment provisions on

search and seizure as well as relevant cases relating to

probable cause in explaining his reversal of the verdict.

"This

court has taken into account all circumstances facing the

officers in the heat of the moment," the judge's

order stated. "In reflective hindsight, however, the

court is able to more thoroughly review its own

decisions... if convinced the defendants' rights were not

upheld, this court has a sworn duty to correct any

error."

Attorney

Teresa Weiner said Tuesday that while she and her clients

are certainly thrilled over this development, the case is

not over.

The

O'Keefes plan to file a federal lawsuit against the

Police Department and the city based on injuries suffered

has already had one back surgery and faces another, he

said.

Testimony

during the trial by her orthopedic surgeon was that the

actions taken by police were tantamount to "a knee

in the back," Weiner said, adding that Carolyn

O'Keefe is already on permanent disability.