What’s next for APS criminal case

By Rhonda Cook

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Now that defendants in the criminal case alleging cheating on standardized tests at Atlanta’s public schools have turned themselves in, what comes next is the great unknown.

The certainties are this:

• All 35 former Atlanta Public Schools administrators and educators were required to surrender Tuesday at Fulton County Jail, where their mug shots and fingerprints were taken and entered into the national criminal database.
• There was no way to get around going to the lockup on Rice Street.
• Many lawyers negotiated lower bonds to get their clients released.
• If defendants did not made arrangements for bond, they were to be given a physical exam and assigned to a cell block.

Once all that is settled, the arduous process of going to trial will begin. And that means uncertainties.

At least one motion to “quash” the indictment has been filed and more are likely.

Otherwise, defendants still have to enter pleas — most likely “not guilty” — and then schedules for legal proceedings such as discovery of evidence, motions and briefs will be set.

Some of the 35 named in the indictment may try to reach agreements with prosecutors, as is often the case in criminal trials. Some will want a trial, hoping for public exoneration.

In the coming weeks and months there will be more motions filed, hearings held and, somewhere down the road, perhaps a trial.