The judge overseeing the Atlanta Public Schools test-cheating trial on Wednesday suggested that prosecutors and defendants should consider reaching a resolution.
Fulton County Superior Court Judge Jerry Baxter made the suggestion after lead prosecutor Fani Willis showed the judge the front page of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, which had a story Wednesday about Baxter’s take on the case.
The story reported comments Baxter made Tuesday, when he said he was “somewhat doubtful” about the most serious charge facing the 12 defendants on trial — racketeering.
Willis expressed concern jurors may have seen it.
“I’m trying to give everybody a heads up,” Baxter explained. “ … I’m just saying usually if there’s some division, there’s a compromise. I’m just letting everybody know. Everybody is sitting around like this is a fun ride. But it’s serious.”
Baxter said there will be grave consequences for those convicted of racketeering, which is also called RICO for the Racketeer and Influenced Corrupt Organizations Act.
“This RICO count is real,” Baxter said. “I understand the law. (Jurors) could find RICO in this case.”
Racketeering carries a punishment of up to 20 years in prison. Eleven of the 12 defendants also face lesser felony charges that carry potential prison time.
From the bench, Baxter routinely makes extemporaneous remarks — sometimes dishing out quips, sometimes giving his thoughts on the matters at hand — and he acknowledged that Wednesday.
“I probably shouldn’t have said that,” Baxter told Willis, referring to his thoughts about the racketeering case. “But things come out. Have you noticed that?”
Baxter soon called jurors into the courtroom and asked them if they were aware of any news coverage. All shook their heads.
When testimony resumed, prosecutors focused on three defendants who taught at Dunbar Elementary School: first-grade teachers Pamela Cleveland and Shani Robinson and second-grade teacher Diane Buckner-Webb. A statewide analysis found abnormally high wrong-to-right erasures on standardized tests taken by these teachers’ students in 2009.
That year, Dunbar principal Betty Greene put enormous pressure on the staff to meet APS test targets, said Lera Middlebrooks, the former testing coordinator. Middlebrooks, who was among those indicted and pleaded guilty, testified she did not change students’ answers but helped facilitate cheating.
But her testimony fell short of providing direct proof that Cleveland, Robinson and Buckner-Webb changed answers.
After testing, Middlebrooks said she called Cleveland, Robinson, Buckner-Webb and another second-grade teacher into the computer lab. She said she handed out test booklets so the teachers could erase stray pencil marks that could be picked up by the Scantron test-scoring machine. Middlebrooks said she saw the teachers making erasures, but said she could not tell if they changed answers because her view was blocked by a bank of computers.
“I can’t say I saw the pencil lead go down,” said Middlebrooks, whose testimony continues Thursday.
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