Supreme Court Overturns Sex Assault Conviction of Former Coach

ATLANTA, GA -- The Georgia Supreme Court delivered a blow to prosecutors Monday when it overturned the conviction of a former Cherokee County School District paraprofessional accused of having an inappropriate relationship with a student.

In an opinion handed down Nov. 21, the court argued that prosecutors "failed to prove" that Robert Leslie Morrow was a “teacher, principal, assistant principal, or other administrator of any school,” ruling that his conviction under O.C.G.A. 16-6-5.1 was invalid.

Morrow as arrested in August 2011 by Woodstock police after the agency learned the former River Ridge High School coach and paraprofessional had sex with a student in 2010. The student told police the incident took place inside Morrow's vehicle in a business park inside the River Park subdivision.

A trial jury convicted him of one count of sexual assault by a person with supervisory and disciplinary authority, and he was sentenced to a total of 10 years on probation.

Morrow, 33, appealed the ruling to the Georgia Court of Appeals, which overturned the conviction on the grounds that the law under which he was tried and convicted requires proof that he had “specific supervisory or disciplinary authority" over the student in question.

Since the state failed to show that Morrow had specific authority over the student, the evidence was insufficient to sustain the conviction, the appeals court argued.

The State Supreme Court agreed, adding prosecutors failed to prove that Morrow was a "teacher, principal, assistant principal or other administrator of any school." Additionally, the law does not reference so-called assistant teachers, paraprofessionals, other educators or school employees as those who could be tried under the statute.

"The state acknowledges that Morrow did not do the sorts of things that teachers typically do," the court states. "In particular, there is no evidence that Morrow assigned class work, homework or any other tasks, gave lectures, taught lessons, graded work, administered tests, attended faculty meetings, or reported to school on teacher workdays. Nor did Morrow devote any meaningful portion of his time to the instruction of students. At most, the evidence shows that Morrow occasionally answered questions posed by students with special needs or students with limited proficiency in English, questions that could have been answered by almost any layperson. That is not enough to render Morrow a “teacher” for the purposes of OCGA § 16-6-5.1 (b)(1). Moreover, River Ridge is a public school, and any “teacher” at a public school is required to be certified as such by the Georgia Professional Standards Commission. Someone without a teaching certificate is legally proscribed from being employed as a teacher at River Ridge, and it is undisputed that Morrow
had no teaching certificate."

Cherokee County District Attorney Shannon Wallace said the ruling was a "disappointing decision" as it surrounded the protection of school children.

However, Wallace did say "our courts bring gaps in our laws to our attention through their decisions, as they are constrained by our laws and their interpretation of our laws."

"I believe that our best course of action with respect to this particular statute now is to rely on the Georgia General Assembly to fully inform us, through specific legislation, whether adults other than teachers, principals, assistant principals, or other administrators working in our schools are free to have sexual contact with those students who have otherwise reached the age of consent," she added. "I would submit that adults serving as paraprofessionals should certainly not be permitted to have sexual contact with students who are in the same school where they are employed, as occurred in this case. Nor, for that matter, should bus drivers, cafeteria workers, janitors, and other adults who are entrusted with young lives each and every school day."

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