A former Marietta High School teacher accused of having sex with a student was sent back to jail Thursday for violating the terms of his bond.
But the attorney for Christopher Richard King, 36, says the case should be dropped because of changes in state law.
King was arrested May 27 at his Marietta home. According to the arrest warrant, King and the student, who was 17 at the time, had sex “numerous occasions” in April at his home. He was arrested on a charge of sexual assault.
King, an English teacher, violated the teacher-student relationship code, according to Officer Jennifer Murphy with Marietta police.
King spent six days in jail, released on $25,000 bond and ordered not to have contact with the former student.
According to King’s attorney, the student admitted to someone she believed was a counselor that she had exchanged e-mails with King.
“The counselor was a police officer,” said Marietta attorney Scott Semrau, who represents King. That officer then informed the Cobb County district attorney’s office of the e-mail exhange. The district attorney’s office then filed a petition to have King’s bond revoked, Semrau said.
At a hearing Thursday morning, the former student testified , Semrau said.
Because she is named as the victim in King’s arrest warrant, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution is not naming the former student.
“They have an affidavit from the student stating unequivocally that it was a consensual relationship,” Semrau said. Cobb County Magistrate Judge Frank Cox sentenced King to serve five additional days, following Thursday morning’s hearing. King was arrested at 10:15 a.m., according to jail records.
In a separate but similar case, the state Supreme Court ruled in June that if a student of the age of consent can legally have sex with a teacher. The legal age of consent in Georgia is 16.
“As long as it’s consensual, there’s nothing illegal,” said Semrau. “I think it may be a bad idea, but I don’t think it should be against the law.”
Semrau contends that the law is very clear, and feels his client’s case should be dropped.
“She has her own car, her own job,” Semrau said. “Yet the court seems to think it can control who she has an adult relationship with.”
King, who also served as the journalism teacher at the school, resigned the day before his May arrest, according to Thomas Algarin, spokesperson for Marietta schools.
King had been employed with the district since 2004. He worked with students involved with the Olympian yearbook and the Pitchfork newspaper.
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