The Tonya Craft trial is now over. Tonya Craft, former kindergarten teacher, was acquitted on Tuesday of all 22 counts of child molestation she had been 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. Tonya Craft has sadly been separated from her children for 712 days also.
Tonya Craft trial considered to be a 'Witch hunt'
Tonya Craft supporters characterized the trial as a “witch hunt,” and legal bloggers covering the Tonya Craft trial reported that the prosecutors and judge conspired for a Tonya Craft conviction. After her exoneration, Tonya Craft appeared 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. That is one reason she told NBC's "Today" when she appeared on Wednesday. “There’s nobody that wins in this situation. My whole heart has been taken, and I got half of it back.” Craft told host Meredith Vieira she was hopeful the truth would come out, but was “scared to death” it wouldn’t. She also described watching her own daughter testify against her in court.
“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 and misconduct at the trial
Following the Tonya Craft verdict, Demosthenes Lorandos, Craft's attorney, told The Associated Press that he and Craft’s other attorneys contacted the Federal Bureau of Investigation and 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 circus
The Tonya Craft trial commenced April 13. The proceedings are 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 are able to count on," competed for many ratings and website hits with constant updates on all the sordid details.
Conspiracy against Tonya Craft?
Judicial misconduct was suggested by questionable behavior exhibited by players within the Tonya Craft trial. 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 says that with the trial pending, the prosecutor, Len Gregor, wrote status updates on Facebook that included 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 would like 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 a lot more specific. House (the judge), Arnt, and Gregor (the prosecutors) weren’t 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.
Not Guilty on all 22 counts – Tonya Craft verdict
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 started debating her case on Monday afternoon. Tuesday she was found not guilty of all 22 counts including, child molestation, aggravated child molestation, and sexual battery. 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.
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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