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Charge against teacher's aide wilts
Prosecutors drop the sex battery case against the woman, noting results of her lie test and doubts about witness credibility.
By COLLEEN JENKINS
Published September 23, 2006
TAMPA - Charges have been dropped against a teacher's aide accused in May of sexually abusing a student at the Walton Academy for the Performing Arts. Tamika Denise Lane-Gardner, 30, had no criminal history in Florida when she was arrested and spent 10 days in jail on a charge of sexual battery against a child. The allegations came from a 6-year-old girl, who told her mother and Tampa police that a teacher's aide touched her private parts under her clothes while at the charter school. But the case had too much reasonable doubt for the Hillsborough State Attorney's Office to proceed, Assistant State Attorney Rita Peters said Friday. The problems: - Lane-Gardner denied the abuse and passed a polygraph test. - Prosecutors found no corroborating evidence. - Witness credibility became suspect. Peters said prosecutors came to believe that the 6-year-old's mother had made a similar accusation before. And though polygraph testing would not be admissible in court, it raised eyebrows in light of the lack of corroborating evidence, she said. Law enforcement had enough information to find probable cause for the arrest, Peters said. But to bring a case to trial, more is required. Prosecutors dropped the charge on Aug. 8. "We cannot prove it beyond a reasonable doubt," she said. Lane-Gardner posted bail and was released from jail June 5. Public records show she is married and has at least two school-aged children. She had been a teacher's aide at the school, housed in the Hillsborough County Head Start building at 4817 N Florida Ave. in Seminole Heights, for 10 months before the arrest. It was unclear Friday whether Lane-Gardner lost her job at the school. Messages left at her home and at the school were not returned. Colleen Jenkins can be reached at 813 226-3337 or cjenkins@sptimes.com.
[Last modified September 23, 2006, 01:07:04]
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