3 ex-educators in cheating scandal to be resentenced
ATLANTA — The judge who sentenced former Atlanta Public Schools educators to prison time in a cheating scandal, has scheduled a modification of sentence hearing for three defendants who received the stiffest sentences.
Earlier this month, Judge Jerry Baxter of Fulton County Superior Court sentenced Sharon Davis-Williams, Tamara Cotman and Michael Pitts to serve seven years in prison. Baxter said each was being sentenced to 20 years in prison, would be incarcerated for seven years with the balance served as probation. The sentence included 2,000 hours of community service and a $25,000 fine.
Pitts also was sentenced to five years, to run concurrently, on a charge of influencing a witness.
The sentences were more than double what prosecutors recommended.
On Tuesday, Baxter's case manager confirmed that the judge would resentence the trio on April 30. No further information was available.
The move seems unusual as none of the attorneys for the former top administrators filed a motion to modify their sentences.
"For the court, on its own, to reach out and say, 'come back in, we're going to re-sentence you,' is very unusual. That being said, there is nothing in this case that has been customary or usual," said Philip Holloway, a legal analyst.
The was the first case of its kind in the nation where educators were charged, then eventually convicted, under racketeering charges generally reserved for mobsters and gangsters using Racketeering Influenced Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act.
Twelve educators spent seven months on trial; 11 were convicted April 1. One former teacher, Desa Curb, was acquitted.
The defendants had been accused of falsifying test results to collect bonuses or keep their jobs in Atlanta Public Schools. In all, 35 educators were indicted in 2013 on charges including racketeering, making false statements and theft. Many pleaded guilty and some testified at the trial.
A state investigation found that as far back as 2005, educators fed answers to students or erased and changed answers on tests after they were turned in. Evidence of cheating was found in 44 schools with nearly 180 educators involved, and teachers who tried to report it were threatened with retaliation.
The three highest-ranking defendants received the toughest penalties.
"They… were at the top of this scandal. At the very top," said Baxter in court during sentencing last week.
Five school-level educators — including principals, assistant principals and teachers — were sentenced to five years in prison. Each will be incarcerated for one to two years and serve the remainder on probation. They also will perform 1,000 to 1,500 hours of community service and all but one face fines of $1,000 to $5,000.
Two of those convicted, former testing coordinator Donald Bullock and former teacher Pamela Cleveland, decided to take a plea deal that prosecutors had offered. Cleveland became the only one of the former educators to elude jail time.
The 11th convicted former teacher had a baby prior to last week's sentencing and will be sentenced in August.
Holloway believes the judge would only hold a hearing to give the defendants lighter sentences.
"In all likelihood, we're going to see some downward departure from the sentence as it exists now," Holloway said.
Baxter could resentence them to more closely follow the prosecutors' recommendations.
"We would ask five years to serve three on the RICO Count they were convicted of," said Fani Willis last week, who is the lead prosecutor in the case for the Fulton County District Attorney's office.
Teresa Mann, a lawyer for Davis-Williams, said she received notification that the judge intends to modify her client's sentence but declined to comment further.
Contributing: The Associated Press