State Investigator Says APS Slowed Indictment Process
Friday, a Fulton County Grand Jury issued an indictment for 35 former Atlanta Public Schools employees, including retired superintendent Beverly Hall. The defendants face various charges for their alleged roles in a 2009 test cheating scandal, but why did the indictment process take so long?Listen to the audio version of this story.
It took Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard’s office 21 months to issue the indictment. Mike Bowers, one of three investigators appointed by former Gov. Sonny Perdue to examine alleged cheating in APS, says it was partly due to the amount of evidence in the case.
“There was 800,000 documents,” Bowers said, “There were 2100 interviews. He had a lot to go through. That’s why it took so long.”
In February of 2010, a state analysis revealed an unusually high number of wrong-to-right erasures on standardized tests at 58 Atlanta schools. In August 2010, Perdue appointed the investigators, who issued their own report in June of 2011. That report alleged cheating in APS occurred due to a “culture of fear, intimidation, and retaliation” created by Hall and her staff. Bowers says if any party drew out the indictment process, it was APS, not the D.A.
“They withheld documents,” he says, “They withheld information from us all along. Mr. Howard shouldn’t be condemned in any way for being slow. Good Lord. They tried to withhold stuff all along the way.”
Howard has asked the defendants to turn themselves in. The case will move to a judge, who will set a trial date.
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