The Atlanta Public Schools test-cheating trial ended its milestone week in a harried manner Thursday, first hung up by a tardy witness, then halted by an ailing juror.
Day 60 was supposed to be filled with defense testimony. Twelve former APS educators are fighting charges that they engaged in a racketeering scheme to inflate scores on standardized tests.
The Fulton County District Attorney’s Office rested its massive case Wednesday morning following four months of testimony and more than 130 prosecution witnesses. So defense lawyers are raring to tell their respective clients’ sides of the story.
But things got off to a bad start Thursday when Mario Watkins, an APS middle school principal who was due on the stand at 9 a.m., arrived 20 minutes late.
That angered Judge Jerry Baxter, who is known for being a stickler about time.
“He’s in real big trouble,” Baxter said while waiting for Watkins, who blamed an overturned car on I-20 for his delay.
Then, little more than an hour after Watkins took his seat, court ended abruptly because a juror had a medical problem.
It was just a few minutes into the regular morning break when people in the courtroom heard pounding on the jury room door and someone yelling, “Emergency.” A deputy ran to the room where jurors meet, and minutes later about a dozen deputies walked briskly, in single file, through the courtroom and into the adjacent jury room.
“A juror has a problem,” Baxter said a few moments later. “She has to go to the doctor right now. It’s not an emergency but it’s very important.”
“It has to do with a pregnancy,” he said.
At 10:50 a.m., Baxter adjourned court for the day. Since the APS trial is never in session on Fridays, testimony will resume on Monday.
“You’re going to have to come back on Monday at 9 o’clock,” Baxter told Watkins, the first defense witness called in the trial.
“I’ll be here at 8 o’clock,” Watkins said.
His tardiness Thursday provided an ironic counter to the testimony he had given Wednesday, when he said prosecution witnesses who had testified against former Dobbs Elementary School principal Dana Evans were nothing more than problem employees who raised cheating allegations only after their jobs were threatened.
One problem they all had was reporting to work on time, Watkins said.
He said teachers’ work days started at exactly 7:30 a.m. and there was no grace period, not even one minute, unless there were extenuating circumstances.
He testified at length on Wednesday about how often some of those former Dobbs employees were late for work without approval and without good reason.
On Thursday, prosecutor Clint Rucker questioned Watkins’ own tardiness.
“I was behind an overturned car,” Watkins said. “I couldn’t control that.”
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