Attorneys for Paige Adams, the Cold Springs High School basketball coach who abruptly resigned in late March, and was indicted and arrested in April on charges related to sexual contact with a student, have filed a motion to dismiss the charges.
Adams faces two felonies — a school employee engaging in a sex act or deviant sexual intercourse with a student, and a school employee having sexual contact with a student under the age of 19 — and 30 misdemeanor counts of distributing obscene materials to a student.
According to the filing, the alleged victim was an 18-year-old student at another high school in the Cullman County Schools system, and Adams never taught at the school.
Adams' defense says that Adams was never in a position of educational or scholastic extracurricular authority over the alleged victim.
The filing states that the charges violate Adam's 14th Amendment rights to due process.
"The Defendant’s argument is not that the statutes are always unconstitutional; it is that, under these particular circumstances, the statutes operate unconstitutionally because they reach beyond the State’s legitimate interest in preventing exploitation by those “holding positions of authority or influence at a school” over students. Bonds v. State, 205 So. 3d 1270. Where the State is unable to allege any educational or extracurricular authority relationship between the Defendant and the Alleged Victim, the application of these statutes becomes materially broader than the asserted justification," the filing explains.
Judge Emily Johnson responded to the filing, telling the State that it shall file any written response to the defendant’s motion on or before July 22. She then gives another week for Adams' attorney to reply to the State's filing.
This matter is set for a hearing on August 12 at 2:30 p.m.
Adams is considered innocent until proven guilty.
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