More than 11 years ago an alcohol-fueled, post-prom party in Gilmer County that included an alleged sexual assault on a female student by three Calhoun High School male students was nationwide news. Multiple charges were filed, and through the years since 2014 the case has dragged on without a trial; the only judgments handed down were due to civil cases being filed that came out in favor of the alleged victim.
However, there now has been renewed activity in the case, and when the dust settles there may be a dismissal of charges, according to District Attorney Frank Wood of the Appalachian Judicial Circuit. Wood told the Times-Courier recently he filed a motion to bring the case forward after he took office last year, and a senior judge was assigned to the case
“Some of the defense attorneys are out of the case now,” said Wood. “There are new attorneys, and I don’t remember the date, but many months ago we went into court and there was a motion for a constitutional speedy trial filed by the defense. We went in and argued it, fought that, and that senior judge has not made a decision yet on the case.”
There are two different kinds of speedy trials in Georgia, Wood added.
“You’ve got your statutory motion for speedy trial, but then there’s always the constititional argument about a speedy trial … if the court grants the constititional speedy trial motion, the case would end,” he said. “One attorney filed (the motion), then all the attorneys joined that attorney’s motion. One of the newer attorneys filed it.”
Woods said co-defendant Fields Chapman has two lawyers – George Weaver Jr. of Jasper is on the case because his late father had it initially, then another attorney also joined for Chapman. Attorney Jesse Vaughn of Calhoun still represents Avery Johnson, and Noah Pines of Atlanta now represents co-defendant, Andrew Haynes, whose original Dalton counsel has retired.
The motion was argued in court in Gilmer County back in June, according to Clerk of Court Amy Johnson, and a decision has not been reached.
“We did our best. We fought as hard as we could to put up the best arguments we could to keep the case alive,” Wood stated. “We’ll see, but if the court grants that speedy trial motion, then at the point, for all intents and purposes, the case is dismissed (and) I think the case ends. If the court denies the speedy trial motion, then of course the case remains alive. And even though it’s an old case, I will do my best to try it.”
Johnson said Senior Judge Thomas Davis Jr. is presiding over the case. In a phone call Monday morning, Davis said he would rule on the motion “before Christmas.”
Pines called the unresolved criminal charges “one of the longer court cases I’ve ever seen.”
“We’ll wait and see,” he said of the ruling. “If it goes in our favor, we’ll wait and see if the state appeals. If it does not, we will appeal.”
Pines said typically there is “harm” if the defendant has spent time in jail awaiting a speedy trial, but in this case it is different.
“All these young men, these charges have impeded their growth,” he said. “It shouldn’t have taken this long.”
Neither Weaver nor Vaughn returned calls regarding the most recent motion.