Week 15 of the Atlanta Public Schools test-cheating trial was shortened by a day, as court was not in session Monday because a lawyer was out for medical reasons. Yet the week still packed a punch and ended with a bang.
Beverly Hall hasn’t been in court since the APS trial began because she’s battling Stage IV breast cancer. Yet the former superintendent was the focus of some of the week’s most dramatic trial developments.
Millicent Few, who once headed the school system’s human resources department, testified Thursday in Fulton County Superior Court that Hall ordered staff to shred a critical internal investigation into cheating and keep information away from the public because “it would indicate there was cheating in the district.”
Cover-ups went back to the 2006-07 school year, she testified.
Twelve defendants are fighting charges that they engaged in a racketeering conspiracy to inflate test scores. Although Hall, too, is charged with racketeering, she is not on trial at this time because of her illness.
On Jan. 22, Judge Jerry Baxter ordered an update on Hall’s health. “We need to try her,” Baxter said. “Somebody said they saw her out eating the other day, so I need to know how she is doing.”
The judge received an answer on Friday, when Hall’s lawyers told him the former APS chief remains too sick to endure the rigors of a months-long trial.
Opening arguments in the APS trial started on Sept. 29 following a jury-selection process that began in August. Judge Baxter presides in a courtroom that had to be modified to accommodate all the defendants and their lawyers. The trial takes place Mondays-Thursdays, barring breaks for holidays, sick leave, bereavement, etc.
The trial is expected to conclude in late March or early April.
Here are more highlights from Week 15:
TUESDAY’S MOMENT
“Did you tell the police about it?” That’s what Judge Baxter wanted to know after a former Atlanta Public Schools substitute teacher testified Tuesday about her motivation for cheating on state tests. Mary Ware said she corrected her students’ answers on the Criterion-Referenced Competency Test in 2009, so the school would hit its testing targets. At some point, though, she told jurors that her conscience got the best of her: she no longer felt comfortable changing answers because “it was wrong,” she testified. That’s when the judge queried her about whether she told the police. Ware’s response: “No, I did not.”
WEDNESDAY’S MOMENT
Gwendolyn Rogers, a retired Usher-Collier Heights Elementary School principal, countered testimony from several other witnesses that she pressured them to take steps to ensure their students did well on standardized tests. Prior witnesses, including one who testified Wednesday, recounted Rogers saying at a staff meeting, “If little Johnny can’t read … he better be able to read on test day.”
“I would never say anything like that,” Rogers said. But, the one-time educator said, that statement had been made by a member of her staff. “I said to the person after the meeting, ‘You shouldn’t say that. It’s derogatory. It sends the wrong message,’” Rogers testified.
THURSDAY’S MOMENT
There was a tense exchange between Judge Baxter and defense attorney Bob Rubin after the judge said he planned to question defense witnesses who refused to speak with prosecutors before they testified. Baxter said he would bring each witness to court to ask them if defense attorneys had told them not to speak with prosecutors.
“I have instructed each and every witness, I have told them they are free to talk to the state,” Rubin said. “They do not have to talk to the state. I don’t intend to bring each and every one of my witnesses (before Baxter) so the court can intimidate them.”
JUDGE BAXTER PRESIDING
“Talking about people who haven’t been prosecuted, you have to stop that.”
— Baxter on Wednesday to defense attorneys who continued to refer to people who are not on trial, but who were allegedly involved in the test cheating.
“If it’s an error, it’s an error, and we’ll spend another several years on this case.”
— Baxter during discussions Thursday of a ruling that some suggested could lead to a new trial.
“I don’t know. I’m sort of getting dizzy.”
— Baxter on Thursday when a defense lawyer asked about “rebuttal witnesses” and used that term several times in just one question.
WHAT’S NEXT:
Former Atlanta Public Schools human resources director Millicent Few will be cross-examined on Monday.
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