The first trial in the Atlanta Public Schools test-cheating case will begin Aug. 19, with former APS Executive Director Tamara Cotman facing a charge of trying to influence a witness.
Cotman stands accused of telling 12 principals in December 2010 to write a “go to hell” memo to GBI agents who were investigating test cheating at the principals’ schools. Over several months ending in February 2011, Cotman engaged in a “campaign of harassment” against former Scott Elementary School principal Jimmye Hawkins, who attended the so-called “go to hell” meeting, Fulton County prosecutors allege in a recent court filing.
Benjamin Davis, Cotman’s lawyer, predicted his client will be acquitted at trial.
“They completely got it twisted,” he said. “They completely got it wrong. The allegations against Tamara Cotman just aren’t true. This woman is innocent.”
Davis said he has provided prosecutors with a list of witnesses whom he expects will testify that Cotman did not exert her influence on anyone during the state’s investigation. One witness will be Debra Dixon, the former interim principal for Usher-Collier Elementary School, who also attended the “go to hell” meeting in December 2010, Davis said.
Davis provided The Atlanta Journal-Constitution with a letter Dixon wrote to Cotman’s prior attorney in which she said the allegation that Cotman ordered principals to write and read aloud condemnations of state investigators “is totally not true.”
Separately, Fulton prosecutors are seeking permission to introduce evidence of eight “prior bad acts” committed by Cotman dating back to early 2008. Although Cotman does not face charges for this conduct, jurors should be allowed to hear about it because it shows that Cotman had a “fear and intimidation” management style and that her alleged “go to hell” memo “was not a joke, mistake or accident,” the prosecution’s motion says.
Among these allegations is that Cotman told a teacher’s assistant in 2008 that she could lose her job if she didn’t keep quiet about her concerns that Scott Elementary students were being physically and emotionally abused and that teacher’s assistants were being told to cheat on students’ standardized tests.
Cotman also tried to intimidate Michael Milstead, the former principal at Harper Archer Middle School, the motion said. At a principal’s meeting in May 2008, Milstead had said students were coming out of elementary school with high standardized test scores but were entering middle school without the ability to read or do simple mathematics. Cotman confronted Milstead about it in July 2008 and, a few months later, told him he would not be renewed for the following school year, the motion said.
Davis said he will oppose the prosecution’s attempt to get this “prior bad acts” testimony before the jury. “I think it’s an act of desperation (that) they’re trying to do this,” he said.
Cotman remains a defendant in the sweeping indictment that accuses her and 34 other former APS educators and officials of engaging in a racketeering conspiracy to inflate test scores. That indictment also accused Cotman of influencing a witness.
Cotman’s attorney had challenged the influencing a witness charge, saying it should be dismissed because it was too vague. In June, Fulton prosecutors obtained a new indictment, with a single influencing a witness charge that provided more specifics. It alleges that Cotman threatened Hawkins, the former Scott Elementary principal, by placing her in fear of retaliation and demotion if she cooperated with any investigation.
Davis quickly filed a motion for a speedy trial on the new indictment, which meant that if the influencing a witness charge were not tried by the end of August it would have to be dismissed. Superior Court Judge Jerry Baxter recently scheduled jury selection to begin on Aug. 19 and testimony to start on Aug. 26, Davis said.
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