Then: At an alcohol-fueled party after Calhoun High School’s prom in May 2014, a young woman alleged she was sexually assaulted by three male students after passing out in a bedroom.
About 30 people, all under legal drinking age, attended the party at a house in an Ellijay, Georgia, gated community, according to investigators.
Investigators found that all three males penetrated the unnamed alleged victim with their fingers, causing bruising, swelling and lacerations to her sexual organs. In May 2014, a spokesperson from the Gilmer County Sheriff’s Office told the Chattanooga Times Free Press that all involved with the incident were over 18.
In July, a few months after the incident, the three men, Fields Chapman, Andrew Haynes and Damon Avery Johnson, were indicted on one count of aggravated sexual battery and one count of sexual battery. Chapman and Haynes were also charged with sodomy.
Ellijay is in Gilmer County, nearly an hour’s drive northeast of Calhoun, in Gordon County, where Haynes and Chapman were prominent high school athletes. The incident brought national media attention to the rural Northwest Georgia community.