Tonya Craft, a kindergarten schoolteacher in Chickamauga, Georgia at Chickamauga Elementary School, is on trial facing 22 counts of child molestation and other charges. Since being arrested and charged in 2008, Craft has maintained her innocence. The Tonya Craft trial had been a local media soap opera until Thursday, when NBC's Today Show entourage descended upon Chickamauga to give local merchants' a pay day. Thursday morning on the Today show, reporter Michelle Kosinski and legal pundit Dan Abrams assembled a piece called "Witch Hunt or Child Molester?"
Is Tonya Craft a Chickamauga witch?
The media campaign to make Tonya Craft the Chickamauga witch began just after her arrest and booking. After warrants were issued for her arrest, Craft turned herself into the Catoosa Sheriff's Office. Her attorney said Craft was not allowed to tell her side of the story, and denied the charges. The alleged crimes committed by Craft involved fondling little girls in her home during a slumber party. She has not been able to see her own daughter since she was released on a $ 50,000.
Tonya Craft trial - it's a media circus
April 13 marked the beginning of the Tonya Craft trial. Up until Michelle Kosinski and also the Today show arrived Thursday, the proceedings had remained a media circus locally. With tag lines and logos, local TV News programs branded the case using any catchy wording they could exploit. Breathless, eager anchors rounded up their viewers with promises to provide reports on "graphic testimony." With constant updates on all the sordid details, the "Tonya Craft Trial" on News channel 9 and "Tonya Craft: Teacher on Trial" on "WCRB-News you can count on" competed against each other for ratings and website hits.
Tonya Craft trial: judicial misconduct
Judicial misconduct appear to be summoned by numerous curious aspects in the Tonya Craft trial. For one, according to cato-at-liberty.org, the judge sitting on the case represented the defendant's husband in their divorce, but refused to withdraw himself from the cash. Closely following the trial, blogger Williams Anderson reports that with the trial pending, Len Gregor, the prosecutor, wrote Facebook status updates that included comments by witnesses. Anderson wrote that during the trial Wednesday, Gregor: "has been screaming at the female witnesses that Tonya Craft is a 'narcissist' because she goes to a gym and is a personal trainer. having established that Ms. Craft is a 'narcissist,' he demands that jurors and the public accept the following chain of logic: (1) Some narcissists have molested children; (2) Tonya Craft is a narcissist; (3) therefore, Tonya Craft definitely molested children."
The Tonya Craft trial, according to Noah Arenstein, a lawyer writing for change.org,'has devolved into a ludicrous, back-and-forth character assassination of everyone involved. Prosecutors Chris Arnt and Len Gregor, in particular, have asked lurid and wholly irrelevant questions about Craft's sexual history, while her attorneys have been barred from introducing evidence of Craft's good character.
Stay tuned for more of the Tonya Craft trial
Tonya Craft's defense is trying to convince the Catoosa County jury that the former kindergarten teacher is a victim of "soured friendships, lies and revenge," according to News Channel 9. One theory presented by the defense is the mother of one of the alleged victims was displeased because Craft and her husband's relationship was souring. Meanwhile, on Thursday morning, the "Today" show's Michelle Kosinski was doing live updates for NBC from outside the courthouse. Stay tuned for more of the Tonya Craft trial.