The ex-husband of Tonya Craft, a former Chickamauga, Ga., schoolteacher acquitted on child molestation charges, testified this morning at a custody hearing for their children that he did not instigate the allegations of molestation against her.
“This wasn’t about me,” Joal Henke said on the witness stand in Hamilton County Circuit Court. “I was concerned with anything that would be of danger to my children.”
Craft, Henke’s former wife, is seeking custody of their two children. She was acquitted on charges of molesting her daughter and two other girls earlier this year after a five-week trial in North Georgia.
Henke also said he has not spoken negatively about Craft to his children or discussed the case with them. He always told them to discuss their concerns with their counselor, he testified.
Judge Marie Williams said the custody hearing will last at least four days.
The custody hearing had been delayed more than three months.
For complete details, see tomorrow’s Chattanooga Times Free Press.
