DA says GreenHouse role ‘minimal’ in Craft investigation

Published 2:10 am Wednesday, May 26, 2010

District Attorney Kermit McManus said the GreenHouse Children’s Advocacy Center in Dalton, and a former employee of the center, played a “minimal” role in the investigation of a former Chickamauga Elementary School kindergarten teacher who was acquitted of child sexual abuse charges earlier this month.

Tonya Craft, 37, was found not guilty on May 11 in Catoosa County Superior Court of 22 counts of child molestation, aggravated child molestation and aggravated sexual battery. Craft filed a $25 million lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Rome on Monday that named the GreenHouse and Suzie Thorne, a former employee who is now with the Whitfield County Sheriff’s Office, among 15 defendants. The suit alleges violation of civil rights, due process violations, gross negligence, defamation, invasion of privacy and intentional infliction of emotional duress.

The GreenHouse is part of the district attorney’s office. There child victims of physical and sexual abuse in Whitfield and Murray counties can be counseled, interviewed by a trained child forensic interviewer and videotaped to assist in criminal investigations.

GreenHouse Director Pam Partain referred questions to McManus. He was asked what role the GreenHouse played in the investigation and trial of Craft.

“Well, I can’t go into much detail because I haven’t seen the lawsuit,” he said. “I haven’t seen any of the allegations. I don’t know what they’re saying is the basis for the lawsuit. Our participation in this was very minimal. We were requested to conduct some interviews of the victims, which our interviewer did, and that’s pretty much our involvement.”

McManus said Thorne no longer works at the GreenHouse.

“She used to work as a deputy sheriff and was an investigator for awhile,” he explained. “We hired her at the GreenHouse back — I don’t have the dates in front of me — a couple of years ago, a few years ago. She worked as a forensic interviewer for the GreenHouse. She had since, recently, within the past five or six months, I guess, gone back to the sheriff’s department.”

McManus was asked what type of training and continuing education courses forensic investigators of children in abuse situations are required to complete.

“I really don’t want to get into that at this point … because I think that’s some of the allegations in the lawsuit,” he said. “And without knowing specifically what the allegations are as they relate to her or the GreenHouse in general, I think making any comments now would be in essence responding to the lawsuit I have not read. I prefer not to do that. I’d be glad to do that in the future at some point. I know that our center and the one in Catoosa County were named (in the suit) — I don’t know if they specify who did this or Dalton did that — but I can’t respond at this point.”

As part of its trial coverage, the Chattanoogan.com reported on April 20, “Suzie Thorne, formerly with the GreenHouse in Dalton, had done interviews with two of the girls. These are the same videos the defense used during cross-examination of the alleged victims last week. Ms. Thorne told the jury that she had been the chief forensic interviewer at the facility. While there she said she had interviewed several hundred children and had received training from the National Children’s Advocacy Center in Huntsville.

“While laying out her professional qualifications with Assistant District Attorney Chris Arnt, Ms. Thorne, now a deputy with the Whitfield County Sheriff’s Department, said she was not allowed to use questions that might lead the children. Mr. Arnt asked, ‘Have you ever purposely misled a child?’ ‘Absolutely not. It doesn’t take much to mislead a child, the skill is getting the child to tell you what happened.’”

Thorne is not on duty at the sheriff’s office this week, a spokeswoman said. McManus was asked if he was comfortable with the way the interviews were carried out.

“I can’t respond to that because I don’t know what the content of the interviews were, because it was not something that we handled … I’ve never seen the interviews,” he replied. “I don’t know what the complaints are about them, so I’d better not respond at this point because I’m not sure what the allegations are.”

Several defendants — Catoosa County government, the Catoosa County Sheriff’s Office, Sheriff Phil Summers and Detective Tim Deal — said in a statement from their attorneys they were obtaining copies of the lawsuit but “deny any allegations of wrongdoing and state that any claims asserted in the lawsuit are unfounded and will be vigorously defended.”

Staff writer Charles Oliver contributed to this story.