Consent defense argued

ATLANTA --- No law prohibits teachers from having consensual sex with students 16 and older, according to an attorney for a teacher working to overturn her sexual assault conviction.

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Melissa Lee Chase: Former Harlem High teacher is in prison for a consensual sexual encounter with a 16-year-old.

The prosecutor, though, says this is one case where the wording of the law should be interpreted broadly for the sake of public schools.

Their arguments before the Georgia Supreme Court took on extra significance because they were made in a classroom full of students. Tuesday was the court's annual day of oral arguments at one of the state's five law schools, this time at Atlanta's John Marshall Law School.

At issue is the wording of the section of the law Melissa Lee Chase is in prison for violating. In 2006, she was a 28-year-old teacher and softball coach at Harlem High School when she had a sexual encounter with a 16-year-old female student. The student testified that she had initiated the affair and that the sex was consensual.

Prosecutors argued that consent could not be used as a defense, and Ms. Chase wound up with the mandatory 10-year sentence for sexual assault.

Now the state's highest court has to decide what legislators meant when they wrote the law.

There are four sections specifying when it is illegal to have sex with a person: in custody, in a hospital, in a school or under the care of a therapist. The section dealing with a therapist says the victim's consent can't be used as a defense.

Ms. Chase's lawyer, Victor Hawk, told the court she was charged under the section dealing with schools, and it doesn't say consent can't be used. Since 16 is the age of consent in Georgia, he says there was no crime.

"It's obvious this case represents the outer limits of private, consensual sexual conduct," he acknowledged. But he said courts can't add wording that isn't in the law.

Legislators could have added the wording to prohibit consensual sex between teachers and students, he noted, but they didn't. Besides, what if a college student had consensual sex with a younger professor? Making that illegal would show how absurd the law could be under the prosecutor's interpretation, he said.

The prosecutor, Assistant District Attorney Charles Sheppard, told the seven justices he generally favors a strict reading of laws, except in this case.

"To a large extent, I have a degree of sympathy with counsel's argument with regards to statutory construction," he said. "I personally take a very narrow view of construction in most cases but not in the circumstances of this case. The state's interests are simply too compelling."

Because education is compulsory, the state has an interest in restraining teacher behavior if educators have no inhibitions of their own, he said.

The justices offered few clues on how they will rule in the next three to six months, though each one asked several questions.

In the meantime, Ms. Chase remains in Pulaski State Prison, where she has been since October 2007.