Prosecutor drops some charges against teacher
A prosecutor dropped some charges against a Walker County, Georgia, special education teacher last month.
Robert Sam Forester, a teacher who also coached football and wrestling at LaFayette High School, was arrested four times last year in domestic violence cases involving his former wife. Two of those cases were dismissed in Walker County State Court on June 15.
State Court Solicitor Pat Clements said the accuser asked him to dismiss those charges. She did not return a call seeking comment Thursday evening.
It’s not clear what is happening with two of the other criminal charges against Forester. Clements said the district attorney’s office is handling those cases. But Lookout Mountain Judicial Circuit District Attorney Herbert “Buzz” Franklin did not return an email asking abut Forester’s cases Thursday.
Meanwhile, Walker County Schools Superintendent Damon Raines told the Times Free Press that Forester is out of the classroom, on family medical leave.
The criminal charges against Forester began after he filed for divorce in October 2016. A judge ruled his wife could remain in his LaFayette home while he lived elsewhere until January 2017. By April of that year, she was still there. A judge then ruled she needed to leave within 10 days.
That same afternoon, a neighbor called police and reported hearing an argument at Forester’s home. A responding officer arrested Forester and his ex-wife for battery, after she said he twisted her arm tightly and he said she bit him. The officer wrote in an incident report that he could see physical marks of injury on both people. The charges against both parties were dismissed June 15.
In June 2017, the Walker County Sheriff’s Office arrested Forester again after his ex-wife told an investigator that he stomped on her arm. That charge also has been dropped.
In September, the sheriff’s office arrested Forester after his ex-wife said he choked her and shoved her against a wall. A month later, the department arrested him again after she said he attacked her with a box cutter.
In that case, the investigator wrote that Forester’s ex-wife had cuts on her arm, which he described as “superficial.” Forester told the investigator that his accuser tried to force him to have sex with her and ripped his shirt. He played a voicemail for the investigator in which she threatened to call the police if he did not call her back.
Forester’s attorney, David Cunningham, is out of town this week and could not be reached for comment, an assistant in his office said Thursday.
After the September arrest, Raines moved Forester out of the classroom, into a role in an administrative office. But by the spring semester, he was back with students at Ridgeland High School. In February, some students told investigators that Forester showed them an inappropriate picture on his phone.
But Sheriff Steve Wilson said Thursday that no charges ever came from that allegation.
“We thoroughly investigated it, examined the phone and did not find any criminal violation,” he said.
Last year, Cunningham accused Forester’s ex-wife of lying. He said she made “calculated attempts to get him fired.”