The Tonya Craft trial — the Chickamauga battle that became national news — is over. On Tuesday, the Tonya Craft verdict acquitted the previous kindergarten teacher of all 22 counts of child molestation that she was being charged with. But not until after she lost her job at Chickamauga Elementary School, her house in Chickamauga, Ga., and amassed legal bills close to $ 500,000. Also, Tonya Craft was separated from her kids for 712 days.
Tonya Craft trial a ‘witch hunt’
Tonya Craft supporters characterized the trial as a “witch hunt,” and legal bloggers covering the Tonya Craft trial reported the prosecutors and judge conspired for a Tonya Craft conviction. After her exoneration, Tonya Craft was on the “Today” show Wednesday morning and could be featured on Larry King Live Wednesday night.
On 'Today' is Tonya Craft
Tonya Craft's verdict kept her from getting sentenced to 400 years in prison. But her legal costs may leave her in need of a short term loans. She told NBC's "Today" on Wednesday that it wasn't a victory because of that very reason. “There’s nobody that wins in this situation. My whole heart has been taken, and I got half of it back.” Craft said she hoped the truth would come out but was "scared to death" it would not. She talked about how hard it was to see her daughter testify against her.
“That was the absolute hardest thing I’ve ever experienced, because my job as a mother is to protect her,” Craft said. “There certainly was no anger towards her. It absolutely broke my heart to see that my daughter had been pretty much indoctrinated to believe things that weren’t true.”
Trial misconduct and Tonya Craft
Following the Tonya Craft verdict, Craft’s attorney, Demosthenes Lorandos, told The Associated Press that he and Craft’s other attorneys have contacted the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the U.S. attorney’s office about what he called “fraudulent” behavior of Judge Brian House and also the Catoosa County district attorney’s office during the exact same case.
Local media is a circus
April 13 was when the Tonya Craft trial commenced. The proceedings have seemed a local media circus. Local TV news programs given the case tag lines and logos. Breathless anchors popped up on the screen throughout the day with promises of "graphic testimony." The "Tonya Craft Trial" on News Channel 9 and "Tonya Craft: Teacher on Trial" on "WCRB — News you are able to count on," competed for ratings and website hits with constant updates on all the sordid details.
Tonya Craft and conspiracy against her by Prosecutor?
Many of the players within the Tonya Craft trial showed questionable behavior that suggested Judicial misconduct. As outlined by Cato-at-liberty.org, the judge sitting on the case represented the defendant's husband in their divorce. Defense attorneys asked the judge to step down but he refused. Blogger William Anderson, who has been covering the trial, reports that with the trial pending, the prosecutor, Len Gregor, wrote status updates on Facebook that included numerous comments by witnesses. After Tonya Craft's verdict was set, Anderson wrote to the defendant:
What was done to you was criminal: no other word will suffice. Indeed, if you want to know where the REAL conspiracy was centered, it was in that courtroom, as a judge and his two henchmen conspired time and again to deprive you of your civil rights to a fair trial. Let me be more specific. House (the judge), Arnt, and Gregor (the prosecutors) were not guilty of overzealousness or even bad judgment. What they did was much, much worse because they teamed up to keep much of the evidence that would have exonerated you out of the courtroom. They harassed your witnesses and then called your four expert witnesses, who are well-respected in their fields (to put it mildly), “whores” and liars.
Tonya Craft verdict – not guilty on all 22 counts
Tonya Craft was arrested in June 2008 and accused of molesting three girls in her home between August 2005 and May 2007. After a five week trial, a jury started debating her case on Monday afternoon. On Tuesday, they found her not guilty of all 22 counts, including child molestation, sexual battery and aggravated child molestation. Craft’s chief attorney, Dr. Demosthenes Lorandos, said on the “Today” show that his client had been receiving many different death threats, and he hurried her out of the courtroom following the Tonya Craft verdict.
Citations
“Today” show Wednesday morning
http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/37103788/ns/today-today_people/
The Associated Press
http://www.ap.org/
Blogger William Anderson
http://williamlanderson.blogspot.com/search/label/Tonya%20Craft
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