12 months ago
A former Baldwin County High School teacher won't face sexual assault charges after all.
Ocmulgee Judicial Circuit District Attorney Fred Bright called a 3 p.m. news conference Tuesday to announce that sexual assault charges against Allison Ivey won't be pursued.
Bright said a recent Georgia Supreme Court ruling apparently makes it legal for teachers to have consensual sex with students who are 16 and older.
The court decided that case, Chase vs. The State, on June 15. It involved a sexual relationship between a 28-year-old teacher and a 16-year-old teacher in Columbia County.
By a 5-2 vote, the state supreme court ruled that Georgia's general assembly apparently intended to allow sexual relations between teachers and consenting students over 15. To read a summary of the ruling, click on the link to the right.
Based on the high court ruling, Bright said he'll ask a Superior Court judge to dismiss the charges against Ivey, saying he doesn't think she can be prosecuted successfully.
"What they're saying is that it's almost useless, and I can tell you as a prosecutor it's basically useless, and I don't claim to speak for all prosecutors in the state, but I think that is one of the reasons we unanimously filed a friend of the court brief," Bright said.
Last year, a grand jury indicted Ivey on five counts of sexual assault after allegedly having consensual sex with two students. At the time, one student was 17, the other 18.
When the indictment came down last year, Ivey's mother, Judy Ivey, chaired the Baldwin County Board of Education. Bright said the high court ruling, not the mother's school board connection, prompted his decision to seek a dismissal of the charges.
Ivey resigned her teaching position after being indicted.
