Judge Jerry Baxter: “I have done a lot of reflecting on my sentence. … I’m not comfortable with it.”
Charles Steele Jr., president and CEO of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, was in the audience to show support. “It’s encouraging that he did reduce the sentences,” he said. “But I also feel that…these educators should not be incarcerated to any degree. …Any time is too harsh because these are good people.”
Baxter in a back-and-forth with Cotman’s attorney Ben Davis, who called for a different sentence: “I’ve been listening to you for two years and it’s making me dizzy. … I’m ready to get out of the APS business. I’m pretty much over it.”
Baxter told Davis he would not suspend Cotman’s sentence. (Davis said he’d heard the judge say he would previously in the proceeding.) “They had a chance from the get-go to take responsibility over and over again,” he said.
Gerald Griggs, attorney for convicted former educator Angela Williamson, who came to watch, said the new sentences are “better.”
Ben Williams, husband of Sharon Davis-Williams, was in the courtroom to watch. He called it only “a step in the right direction” and said it took too long. He said his wife wants to win on appeal: “We’re going to maintain a course about seeking vindication in the courts.” The shorter prison term is no weight off his shoulders, he said, “Because my wife is still in a situation where her personal reputation has been slaughtered to the extent that she has been rendered virtually unemployable.”
Erica Long, was not in the courtroom. Her son attends first grade at Perkerson Elementary, and she graduated from APS before attending college. She said in a phone interview that APS needs to do more to improve the schools, noting that the high school her son is eventually supposed to attend is failing and on the governor’s takeover list should voters approve his Opportunity School District. She was not disappointed by the judge’s decision to reduce the sentences and is gratified simply that the convicted former educators are being held accountable: “I felt that they got a victory even indicting anyone. … It does nothing for me personally to see educators going to jail.” She added that these educators “had some nerve to sit there week after week after week and pretend they were innocent.” She has friends who were whistleblowers in the trial: “They weren’t lying, and the children weren’t lying.”
Tamara Cotman, after her first sentencing, as to why she did not take a plea deal: “I would not be able to take a deal that would have perjured myself. I wasn’t able to compromise my integrity.”
Sharon Davis-Williams after her first sentencing: “I don’t plan to spend seven years in prison. I do have faith our justice system will work even though it’s failed me once.”
Michael Pitts comment to Judge Jerry Baxter after his first sentencing in April: “I just didn’t know (about cheating). If I would have known, I would have turned it in.”
Judge Baxter said the kids need all the help they can get. Then, he turned to his stenographer: “Evelyn, don’t you think I’ve said enough?”
Yes, she responded.
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