As the fourth week of the trial for a former kindergarten teacher charged with child molestation begins, the proceedings continue to gain local interest as well as national media attention.
Prosecutors have based their case against Tonya Craft on testimony from children, their parents, investigators and others. Ms. Craft's defense team, meanwhile, has questioned what they argue are inconsistencies in testimony.
Ms. Craft, a former Chickamauga Elementary School teacher, is charged with 22 counts of child molestation, aggravated sexual battery and aggravated child molestation. The charges involve three girls.
The trial has generated media and public interest. NBC's "Today" show aired a segment on the trial Thursday morning, while other networks also are looking into the case. Updates on the trial are posted frequently on social media sites.
Today, the trial will continue with more testimony from the defense's witnesses.
PROSECUTION'S SIDE
The state and defense teams are painting different pictures about how the allegations that led to Ms. Craft's arrest on June 11, 2008, emerged.
The prosecution's witnesses cite a May 23, 2008, pool party as the event that prompted the allegations against Ms. Craft.
At this party, Sherry Wilson questioned a child who wrote "sex and love" in chalk on the sidewalk. The child then told Mrs. Wilson about a child-on-child sexual incident between some of the girls when they played the "boyfriend, girlfriend game."
The now-alleged first victims' mothers was also present at that party and heard about the incident involving one of her daughter's friends. That same night the mother asked her own daughter if anyone had ever touched her. When she said another child had touched her and she also played the "boyfriend, girlfriend game," the mother testified she asked the daughter if anyone else had ever touched her.
The girl then told her mother Ms. Craft had touched her in her private area several times, specifically at a slumber party in January 2008, the mother testified in court.
Several days later, the daughter had her first interview in which the child talks about the child-on-child incident but not any molestation involving Ms. Craft. In a later interview, she said Ms. Craft had molested her.
On May 30, 2008, the girl's father called and told the now third alleged victim's father that Ms. Craft was being investigated on charges of molestation.
While in court the third father could not remember if he talked with his daughter that night or the next day. But when he did, he asked her if anyone had touched her.
After being asked several times, the girl told her father Ms. Craft also had touched her and then showed him how she did it.
The mother of the second alleged victim testified that she was notified on May 29, 2008, that her daughter needed to be interviewed for the same child-on-child incident. When she took her daughter to the Children's Advocacy Center, she testified Ms. Craft also was suspected of touching her daughter inappropriately.
DEFENSE'S SIDE
But Ms. Craft's defense attorneys have argued something else happened. The defense has argued that the parents led their children to believe Ms. Craft touched them after finding out about a child-on-child incident.
The defense argues at the pool party in May 2008, a different incident took place.
When the parents of the girl who had written in chalk on the sidewalk arrived at the Wilsons' house, both parents testified Sherry Wilson and her husband were angry at Ms. Craft.
The mother, Kim Walker, testified that the Wilsons were critical of Ms. Craft because she had advised that their daughter was not ready for first grade. The Wilsons' daughter was in Ms. Craft's kindergarten class in the 2007-08 school year.
Days after the incident, Ms. Walker said she got a call from the first alleged victim's mother, who was also at the pool party, saying she thought Ms. Craft "was crazy."
The mother then told Ms. Walker that after finding out about the child-on-child incident with the girls, she had questioned her own daughter for three days about Ms. Craft. The mother said on the third day the girl told her Ms. Craft had touched her, Ms. Walker testified.
Ms. Walker testified that after incident in May 2008, the mother continued to call her trying to convince her to continue questioning her own daughter about an alleged incident with Ms. Craft. Ms. Walker said her daughter had told her about a child-on-child incident but nothing about Ms. Craft.
One of Ms. Walker's daughters, who was close friend with the third alleged victim, testified that Ms. Craft had never touched her inappropriately and that she didn't see anything happen at the January 2008 slumber party.
During the same time, the mother's husband called the third alleged victim's father six times on May 30, 2008. Then the mother called him several times the next day, and phone conversations continued for the next eight months, according to evidence Ms. Craft's defense attorney's presented.
The parents of the first child claimed Ms. Craft had touched the girl at the 2008 slumber party. In cross-examination, the defense revealed that the girl was angry with Ms. Craft after that party, because Ms. Craft had corrected the child for being mean. After this party, the girl's mother and Ms. Craft, who had been good friends, stopped talking.
ON TWITTER
Follow the trial on twitter.com/timesfreepress.