Speedy trial motion filed by defendants granted
Twelve years to the day an alleged sexual assault took place in Gilmer County during a post-prom party by Calhoun High School students, a senior presiding judge has granted the defendants’ motion to dismiss due to lack of a speedy trial.
Judge Tom Davis wrote in a Monday, May 11 “Order granting defendants’ plea in bar based on denial of constitutional right to speedy trial” that the indictment against Fields Chapman, Andrew Haynes and Avery Johnson has been dismissed.
Davis stated he used a “four-factor balancing test” in coming to a decision that included length of the delay (in being adjudicated), reasons for the delay, defendants’ assertion of speedy trial right and prejudice to the defendants, the latter including, respectively, death threats, the revocation of a college baseball scholarship to one of the student-athletes and the inability of one defendant to become a licensed electrical contractor because of the charges. Davis also mentioned the statewide COVID judicial emergency in the section about reasons for the delay.
“Because the delay in this case has been so long, and because the issues causing delay are so intertwined, it has been difficult for the Court to assign discrete time periods to the causes of delay,” Davis stated. “It is the sheer length of the case that the court finds striking. There have been several multi-year periods of inaction, for no explainable reasons … Only recently has discovery been completed.
“The overriding relevant circumstance in this case is the sheer length of the delay. Even when one accounts for periods of delay attributed to the defendants the remaining time is too long for the Court to say that allegiance and fidelity have been paid to the ‘animating principles’ of the speedy trial guarantee. The Court is led to the conclusion that the defendants’ constitutional right to speedy trials (have) been irreparably denied.”
Davis added the Court was also “mindful of the sad, harsh fact that if this ruling is upheld, the alleged victim will be denied her chance to be heard. By legal necessity, the Court’s inquiry has had to focus on the defendants and the effects of the process on their right to a speedy trial. It is most regrettable that the alleged victim’s right to a resolution was not better protected in this case.”
District Attorney Frank Wood, who has the option of appealing the dismissal, said he would have comments on the ruling later this week. Defense attorney Noah Pines, who represents Haynes, stated: "Judge Davis properly analyzed the law governing constitutional speedy trial claims and correctly concluded that the 12-year delay in this case violated my client's constitutional right to a speedy trial."