YOU BE THE JUDGE
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The magnitude of the 17th week of testimony in the Atlanta Public Schools test-cheating trial can be summed up in three little words: “The state rests.”
The milestone was reached Wednesday morning, exactly six months to the day after jury selection began on Aug. 11.
It came once the prosecution called its final witness, a 16-year-old girl, who left jurors with the image of having to spend three years in the eighth grade because the Atlanta school system did not prepare her.
The student said she was promoted to the eighth grade while in the Atlanta district, but had to repeat that grade twice when her family moved to Clayton County.
“How are you doing?” Fulton County prosecutor Fani Willis asked.
“Not good,” the girl answered. “I don’t get none of the math.”
She wasn’t cross-examined.
And with that, the prosecution rested.
“Your honor, it’s a great honor. The state rests,” Willis said to applause from the jury.
It took four months of testimony from more than 130 witnesses, but the prosecution at last made way for an army of defense lawyers to begin telling their respective clients’ side of the cheating story. Twelve former APS educators are fighting charges that they engaged in a racketeering conspiracy to ensure higher scores on standardized tests.
Fulton County Superior Court Judge Jerry Baxter on Wednesday quickly dismissed the bulk of defense attorneys’ motions for acquittal. And not long thereafter, Robert Rubin, lawyer for former Dobbs Elementary principal Dana Evans, called the first defense witness: APS educator Mario Watkins.
Watkins’ testimony was slated to resume at 9 a.m. Thursday. But things didn’t go as planned. The momentous week ended in a muddled manner, tripped up by tardiness (a lawyer and a witness), then cut short by illness (a juror). At 10:50 a.m. Thursday, Judge Baxter called it a wrap.
Here are more highlights from Week 17:
MONDAY, Feb. 9
Judge Baxter and defense attorney Ben Davis clashed over the way Davis was cross-examining University of Michigan professor Brian Jacob, a statistics expert who testified for three days about improbable gains in 2009 APS standardized test scores.
Baxter and Davis talked loudly over each other, which has happened often during the trial. Baxter complained that Davis, who represents former APS administrator Tamara Cotman, was not following the rules for cross-examination.
“There is a problem with the way you’re conducting yourself,” Baxter said. “I’m not trying to be mean to you. … It does anger me when I give you instructions and you totally ignore them. I’m just asking you to follow the rules as I’ve outlined them to you.”
TUESDAY, Feb. 10
Caitlin Simms became emotional when she recounted a phone call to parents to explain why, as school principal, she twice declined invitations to speak to the Atlanta Board of Education about her efforts to improve student achievement at Grove Park Elementary.
Simms said her school had a high number of unexplained erasures on the 2009 CRCT and also ranked at the bottom in student achievement. “I … didn’t feel comfortable being a spokesperson for an issue that had not been resolved,” Simms testified.
A week after she turned down the second invitation, she was given a bad performance evaluation and was put on an improvement plan for the first time in her career, Simms said.
WEDNESDAY, Feb. 11
“The state rests.”
THURSDAY, Feb. 12
Baxter was scowling because a defense witness and a defense attorney were late, reportedly because of an accident on I-20.
Attorney Kevin Franks was the first of the two to arrive, rushing into the courtroom 10 minutes behind schedule, apologizing and explaining traffic was backed up because of an overturned car.
Baxter noted Franks’ tardiness and immediately moved to another topic: comments by the defense lawyer that were reported Thursday in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
“I said my client is not guilty,” Franks said.
“You have upset me,” Baxter said. “You don’t do that. … It put me in a bad mood when I saw that.”
QUOTES OF THE WEEK
“Your honor, it’s a great honor. The state rests.”
— Fulton County Chief Senior Assistant DA Fani Willis on Wednesday.
“He’s in real big trouble.”
— Judge Baxter on Thursday about defense witness Watkins, who said he was 20 minutes late because he’d been stuck on I-20 behind an overturned car.
WHAT’S NEXT
Watkins is slated to return to the witness stand Tuesday, Feb. 17. The Fulton County courthouse closed Monday amid forecasts for a winter storm.
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