Defense still waiting on evidence in 2014 Calhoun High sexual battery case

Avery Johnson, Fields Chapman, and Andrew Haynes, from left, converse during a break while in Gilmer County Superior Court Judge Amanda H. Mercier's courtroom on October 23, 2014. The three are defendants in a sexual battery case from a Calhoun High School's post prom party earlier this year. On July 7, a Gilmer County grand jury indicted 18-year-old Andrew Isaac Haynes on a count of sodomy, based on evidence that Haynes performed oral sex against the will of a female student during a post-prom party. The grand jury also indicted 18-year-olds Fields Benjamin Chapman and Damon Avery Johnson on other charges in the case.
Avery Johnson, Fields Chapman, and Andrew Haynes, from left, converse during a break while in Gilmer County Superior Court Judge Amanda H. Mercier's courtroom on October 23, 2014. The three are defendants in a sexual battery case from a Calhoun High School's post prom party earlier this year. On July 7, a Gilmer County grand jury indicted 18-year-old Andrew Isaac Haynes on a count of sodomy, based on evidence that Haynes performed oral sex against the will of a female student during a post-prom party. The grand jury also indicted 18-year-olds Fields Benjamin Chapman and Damon Avery Johnson on other charges in the case.

Three years after their arrest, former Calhoun High School students are still waiting for evidence showing their alleged sexual battery of a former classmate.

Lawyers for Fields Benjamin Chapman, Andrew Issac Haynes and Damon Avery Johnson were supposed to attend a pretrial conference in Gilmer County Superior Court on Tuesday morning. Instead, defense attorneys said, the prosecution pushed the hearing back to later this summer. No official date has been announced.

Jesse Vaughn and Steve Williams, who represent two of the defendants, said they still have not received any discovery material, except for a copy of the indictment. They said the prosecution told them they will discuss how to transfer copies of the evidence to the defendants at some point in the future.

"It's nothing," Williams, who represents Haynes, said of Tuesday's meeting. "It's just lawyers giving gobbly gook."

Appalachian Judicial Circuit District Attorney Alison Sosebee did not return an email Tuesday asking when the prosecutors could provide evidence to the defense attorneys.

Chapman, Haynes and Johnson turned themselves in to the Gilmer County Jail on May 28, 2014, on charges of aggravated sexual battery. At the time, Sheriff Stacy Nicholson said the men caused "trauma" to a classmate by performing and receiving oral sex from her against her will, as well as some of them penetrating her with their fingers.

The crime allegedly occurred in an Ellijay, Ga., cabin during a party after Calhoun High's prom. The men bonded out of jail the same day they were booked.

In August 2014, a grand jury added a slew of charges against the men. If convicted on all counts, they would face sentences of hundreds of years in prison.

Two months later, lawyers met to discuss whether one particular witness would provide testimony beneficial to the defense or the prosecution. In a pretrial hearing, Assistant District Attorney Steve Spencer said Williams should be disqualified from the case because another lawyer at his firm was representing Rhett Harper, who claimed to have witnessed the sexual encounter.

But Williams argued no conflict existed because Harper was actually a witness for the defense. During the hearing, Harper testified that he did not see a crime occur that night. He said the acts were "100 percent consensual."

Prosecutors argued the defense influenced Harper's version of events, saying he originally told the police the conduct was not consensual.

But Sam Sanders, his attorney, said Harper's testimony changed when he had more time to reflect on what he saw. Also, Sanders said, investigators originally told Harper the woman involved received extensive damage, prompting Harper to say the acts must have been against her will.

After a hearing in January 2015, Williams and Vaughn said, prosecutors told the defense they had 50,000 pages of evidence. Since then, the case has not developed much in court.

Vaughn said he received a small bit of discovery from the state Friday: a copy of the indictment in the case.

"Maybe they're going to move some," he said.

In May 2016, the accuser filed a lawsuit against several people attached to the case. She reached a confidential settlement earlier this year, said Sutton Connelly, a Summerville attorney.

Contact Staff Writer Tyler Jett at 423-757-6476 or tjett@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @LetsJett.

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