The Tonya Craft trial — the Chickamauga battle that became national news — is over. On Tuesday, the Tonya Craft acquitted the former kindergarten teacher of all 22 counts of child molestation that she was being charged with. Of course, the timing was after she lost her house, her job as Chickamauga Elementary School, and racked up legal fees around $ 500,000. Tonya Craft has unfortunately been separated from her children for 712 days also.
Tonya Craft trial considered to be a 'Witch hunt'
Tonya Craft supporters are calling 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.
Tonya Craft on ‘Today’
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 installment payday 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 was "scared to death" that the truth wouldn't come out although she was nevertheless hopeful. 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 clearly was no anger towards her. It absolutely broke my heart to see that my daughter had been quite much indoctrinated to believe things that weren’t true.”
Tonya Craft trial misconduct
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 also the U.S. attorney’s office about what he called the “fraudulent” behavior of Judge Brian House and also the Catoosa County district attorney’s office during the case.
Local media is a circus
April 13 was when the Tonya Craft trial commenced. The proceedings have certainly been a local media circus. Local TV news programs branded the case with tag lines and logos. Breathless anchors popped up on the screen throughout the day with the promise of "graphic testimony." The "Tonya Craft Trial" on News Channel 9 and "Tonya Craft: Teacher on Trial" on "WCRB — News you can count on," competed for many ratings and site hits with constant updates on all the sordid details.
Prosecutor conspiracy against Tonya Craft?
Players within the Tonya Craft trial exhibited questionable behavior that suggested judicial misconduct. The judge sitting on the case represented the defendant's husband in their divorce as outlined by Cato-at-liberty.org. Defense attorneys filed a motion seeking the judge's recusal, but he refused to step down. 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. Anderson wrote to the defendant after the Tonya Craft verdict:
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) are 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.
The Tonya Craft verdict of not guilty on all 22 counts
Tonya Craft, arrested in June 2008, was accused of molesting three girls in her home between August 2005 and May 2007. After a five week trial, a jury began debating her case on Monday afternoon. Tuesday she was found not guilty of all 22 counts including sexual battery, aggravation child molestation, and child molestation. Craft’s chief attorney, Dr. Demosthenes Lorandos, said on the “Today” show that his client had been receiving death threats, and he hurried her out of the courtroom following the Tonya Craft verdict.
Article Sources
“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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