All eyes in the courtroom converged on the witness stand Thursday as a former kindergarten teacher charged with child molestation was asked if she ever harmed a child.
A collage of posters containing a timeline of Tonya Craft’s life from 2005 to 2008 — her jobs, school courses, activities — faced the jury as defense attorney Demosthenes Lorandos walked toward Ms. Craft.
“Wow, when did you work in sexually abusing a child?” he asked while looking at the neatly typed timeline.
“I didn’t,” Ms. Craft said, shaking her head. “I’ve never abused a child.”
Ms. Craft, a former Chickamauga Elementary School teacher, is charged with 22 counts of child molestation, aggravated sexual battery and aggravated child molestation. She took the stand in Catoosa County Superior Court in mid-afternoon to testify in her own defense. The alleged victims in the case are three girls.
Using part of the timeline as a visual guide for the jury, Dr. Lorandos mapped out everything Ms. Craft was involved with in 2005, a period when some of the incidents are alleged to have happened.
At the time, Ms. Craft was working full time as a kindergarten teacher at Chickamauga Elementary, taking classes four nights a week to earn a master’s degree and raising her two children as a single mother, Dr. Lorandos pointed out.
In a booming voice, Dr. Lorandos first called Ms. Craft to the stand about 3 p.m. Onlookers sitting shoulder to shoulder in the courtroom watched as she made her way to the witness stand.
When Dr. Lorandos asked her why she was taking the stand when the law didn’t require her to, Ms. Craft responded in a shaky voice, “I’m here because I’ve been falsely accused.”
Questioned about an incident that led to a falling out between Ms. Craft and the second alleged victim’s mother, Ms. Craft’s account had several different details than the testimony given by the girl’s mother.
Ms. Craft testified that, while she was visiting at the home of mother and the girl, the mother found her own daughter and another alleged victim touching each other in the bedroom. When Ms. Craft walked into the room, she testified, she found the mother spanking her child several times and yelling “You know better than that.”
Ms. Craft said she left the house at that point, but the mother called her later, accusing her of not taking the incident seriously.
When Dr. Lorandos produced the medical records of the third child, asking if Ms. Craft was aware of them, she testified that she knew the third girl had been taken to a doctor after the incident between the children.
Ms. Craft testified the doctor said everything was fine.
When Dr. Lorandos tried to enter the medical exam as evidence, Assistant District Attorney Len Gregor objected, citing hearsay. Superior Court Judge Brian House sustained the objection.
Earlier Thursday, Ms. Craft’s third and current husband, David, was called to the witness stand. Mr. Craft testified the first of the three girls never spent the night at their house in Chickamauga.
Defense attorney Scott King led Mr. Craft through details of the slumber parties during which, the girls allege, Ms. Craft molested them.
At one of the parties in October 2007, one in which the second child claims Ms. Craft molested her, Mr. Craft testified the child hadn’t spent the night.
When Mr. King asked Mr. Craft if he had seen anything that supported the allegations at the house, Mr. Craft said “no.”
“If I did, I would have turned her in myself,” he said.
Mr. King asked why the couple had separated from April until November 2008, Mr. Craft said it was his fault.
“I quit on my wife,” he said, explaining that they split before the allegations against her came out.
In May 2008, Mr. Craft said, the first girl’s father — who had introduced him to Ms. Craft in 2007 — told him that the girl’s mother had filed charges against Ms. Craft.
“I was shocked,” Mr. Craft said.
During cross-examination, Mr. Gregor grilled Mr. Craft on why he and Ms. Craft reconciled in November 2008 only weeks before their divorce was final.
They loved each other, Mr. Craft testified, and he realized he was wrong for leaving.
When Mr. Gregor asked if Ms. Craft got back together with him so he could testify in her behalf, Mr. Craft said no. She “loved me and wanted to be with me,” he said.
“Don’t you have to believe that?” Mr. Gregor asked.
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