The judge in the child molestation case for former teacher Tonya Craft today refused to allow a ruling from another judge as evidence in the trial, calling it hearsay.
Ms. Craft, a former Chickamauga Elementary School teacher, is charged with 22 counts of child molestation, aggravated sexual battery and aggravated child molestation. The charges involve three girls.
Lori Evans, a former Fort Oglethorpe Children's Advocacy Center social worker, testified today that she was the therapist for the third alleged victim from June to December 2008.
In a Dec. 30, 2008 hearing, a Hamilton County judge ordered that Ms. Evans be removed as the third girl's therapist because her "entire testimony was/is not credible," according to the court order.
Before court began, Catoosa County Superior Court Judge Brian House ruled that the order could not be entered in the courtroom based on hearsay.
When Ms. Evans was on the stand, defense attorney Demosthenes Lorandos asks her why, in a motion filed in December 2009, she said she never received a copy of the order the year before. She testified that she didn't understand the order when it was handed to her at the December 2008 hearing.
Dr. Lorandos also asked Ms. Evans about her divorce hearing, where a doctor testified that she suffered from post traumatic stress disorder.
Ms. Evans said attorney had asked the doctor to testify at the hearing.
Ms. Evans will be back on the stand after the lunch break.
For complete details, see tomorrow's Times Free Press.