Friends offered strong support on Tuesday afternoon for a former Wallace A. Smith first grade teacher charged with molesting children.
Testimony is winding down in the trial of Duane Sanders, who is charged in connection with cases involving nine of his students.
Walter Robertson said he met Sanders when they both worked at the McDonald's on Highway 58 over 25 years ago. He said, "We became close personal friends I'm very proud to say."
He added, "His five children are all very fine exemplary young people."
The witness said, "I have not seen anything less than him being a sterling gentleman toward children and adults." He said the Sanders family took him in for 6-8 months while he was going through a divorce.
Lisa Stephens, who said she also met Daune Sanders at McDonald's, said the two families became close friends. She said, "He's more than a friend - he's family. He' a really good person. I would trust him with my kids 100 percent."
Sam Bolton, 32, said, "I would choose him to be my father every time." He said Sanders was often alone with him and other kids and nothing every happened out of line.
Another witness, who said her children grew to call Duane Sanders "Uncle", said, "I would never, ever think he would do anything like that. He's a very loving man and he doesn't deserve what he's going through."
A woman whose children played ball with the Sanders children said her children were often alone with him, as well as hundreds of other children, with no problems.
Another witness said of the charges, "I was in disbelief and shock. This is not right. I still don't believe it."
Dr. Bradley Freeman, a Vanderbilt forensic psychiatrist, said he reviewed forensic interviews of the children. He said the interviewers "by and large did a good job." But he said in some cases they ended sentences with "Isn't that right?"
He noted that two children did not make any charges on their first interviews, but did so in a second round.
Dr. Freeman said it was concerning that some children immediately began going into allegations at the very start of their sessions, as if they had been primed beforehand.
He said it seemed odd that other children in the classroom did not note anything untoward going on when a child was in the teacher's lap. He said the desk he used did not have a privacy apron, but was open to view.