A former Columbia County teacher convicted of having sex with a student was released from prison last week.
Melissa Lee Chase, a former Harlem High School softball coach, was released from the Augusta-Richmond County Law Enforcement Center on Friday, said her attorney Victor Hawk.
Ms. Chase, then 28, was convicted of sexual assault in 2006 for having sex with a then-16-year-old girl. She was sentenced to 10 years in prison, followed by five years on probation.
The Georgia Court of Appeals upheld the Richmond County Superior Court’s ruling that consent was not a defense. The state Supreme Court reversed that decision on the basis that consent was a defense that should have been allowed at trial.
Ms. Chase served 21 months at the Pulaski State Prison in Hawkinsville, Ga., before her recent transfer to the Augusta jail.
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As a retired teacher and resident of The Augusta Judicial Circuit, I certainly hope Ms. Wright will do the right thing and retry this female for the latter's sexually-oriented abuse of her professional authority as a teacher at Harlem High School. HHS students, no less than ones at GBHS and LHS, deserve the protection of our legal system.
The DA can't retry this case. Where have you been? If the law changes, it will not be retroactive. Mr. Spinks, it's not a smart thing to accuse this teacher of "sexually-oriented abuse."
About time they let her go.
A lesbian softball coach, who would have imagined that?
Her shoes gave her away.
The DA tried her on what their perception of the law was and they were wrong. There should be a law that allows prosecutors to be tried and convicted if found that they do something like this. The way the law was written did not pertain to the teacher.
I wish I could have had sex with my female teachers when I was 16
Ode the teachers at my school were so ugly that sex with them was the punishment. If you were really bad you had to do it twice.
Justice has finally been served.
She has served jail time. The District Attorney should not file new charges or request a new trial. Let her establish her life anew from the ashes of her past.
Try her again but for another offense -- endangering the welfare of a minor or something like that.
grrrrrrrrrreat