East Coweta Principal Steve Allen had all charges dropped on Tuesday, March 4, by Coweta District Attorney Herb Cranford. The community had rallied behind Principal Allen, known for ending his taped recordings to his students and families with, “if no one else has told you today, I love you.”

This afternoon Evan Horton, Superintendent of Coweta County Schools sent the following statement, “These have been very difficult circumstances for all involved, including for East Coweta High School’s students, staff and parents.  The District Attorney has provided us with a lot of information today. We will be reviewing this information thoroughly and will provide an update at the appropriate time.”

What was the information that Horton and the School Board need to consider before reinstating “Chief” Allen from his administrative leave? Four pages of press release and statement that we will share in its entirety as it paints a picture of a family altercation with a drunk adult son that seemingly got blamed on the person trying to stop it.

The following is the full statement and press release from District Attorney John “Herb” Cranford, Jr.:

DISMISSAL OF CHARGES AGAINST EAST COWETA HIGH SCHOOL PRINCIPAL ALLEN

On February 24, 2025, Coweta County Sheriff deputies were dispatched to the residence of East Coweta High School Principal Stephen “Steve” Allen regarding a “family dispute,” as described in the deputy’s incident report and as noted in the 911 Event Report. After the deputies conducted a preliminary investigation, the ranking deputy made the decision to arrest Steve Allen for two misdemeanors: Criminal Trespass, for damaging a door inside his own house, and for Battery-Family Violence, for causing visible bruising to Allen’s 33-year-old son, William Taber Allen. During the course of the events that culminated in Steve Allen’s arrest, his son posted on social media and later reported to the deputies that his father held a gun to his head that night and threatened to shoot him, which, if supported by evidence, would be the felony crime of Aggravated Assault. After consulting with the Coweta County Solicitor-General and the Coweta County Sheriff on February 25, 2025, the District Attorney initiated an expedited review of this case.

Because our community’s school principals occupy a position of public trust, the allegation that a principal committed violent crimes deserves to be either confirmed-by the State bringing formal charges in court-or dispelled-by dismissing the warrants as quickly as possible. Making an expedited prosecution decision in this case allows the community and school system to move forward knowing the District Attorney’s analysis of the evidence.

On February 26, 2025, the District Attorney’s Office received the Coweta County Sheriff’s Office incident report for this matter, the corresponding body-worn-camera videos for multiple deputies, photographs, 911 call audio, and the 911 call event report. The District Attorney’s Office also obtained reports from July 22, 2024, when William Taber Allen was taken from Steve Allen’s home by first responders to a facility for mental health treatment. Following the District Attorney’s review of the evidence provided by the Sheriff’s Office, the District Attorney’s Office conducted a follow up interview with Steve Allen’s wife, Kelli Allen, who called 911, and Michael Campbell, Allen’s neighbor who spoke to deputies at the scene. The DA’s Office also conducted interviews with Allen’s daughter and son-in-law, as well as neighbor Linda Campbell, all of whom were present for a portion of the dispute before 911 was called, but were not previously questioned. Finally, the District Attorney’s Office interviewed a mortgage lender who assisted Allen’s daughter and son-in-law with securing a loan to purchase a home and who possessed information relevant to this matter.

Following a thorough review of the evidence and as explained below, the District Attorney has concluded that the evidence does not support any criminal charges against Steve Allen arising from this incident. Consequently, the District Attorney has dismissed the warrants against Allen and considers the case against him closed.

The District Attorney’s review of the evidence revealed the following:

Steve and Kelli Allen have two children: 33-year-old William Taber Allen and 26-year-old Kison Allen, who married 25-year-old Brayden Carlisle on February 14, 2025. Their son, who goes by Taber, has a residence in New Orleans, for which Steve Allen co-signed a mortgage. However, Taber has been working in Atlanta and living at his parents’ house in Senoia for much of 2024 and 2025. According to the rest of the Allen family and their neighbors, Taber has a drinking problem, and consistent with that, the deputies who arrested Steve Allen acknowledged at the scene that Taber seemed intoxicated.On Monday, February 24, 2025, Steve Allen came home from work to find Taber sitting in his garage watching television and drinking alcohol. Steve’s daughter, Kison, was also at home and they were ultimately joined by the Allen’s neighbors, Michael and Linda Campbell, Kelli Allen, and Kison’s husband, Brayden Carlisle. This incident began when Taber and Steve got into an argument in the garage about Steve paying for a damaged door at Taber’s residence in New Orleans.

As the rest of the family and neighbors arrived, they watched through the open garage door from the driveway as Steve and Taber argued in the garage, which is set up more like a living room. They observed Steve repeatedly tell Taber to stop drinking and to leave the house or go to his room. They all watched Steve pour out Taber’s alcoholic beverages, only for Taber to smile and open another beverage.

As everyone watched Steve and Taber’s interaction, Kelli told Linda that, in July of 2024, Taber told Steve, “I’m going to ruin you, I want to see you suffer.” In their interviews with the DA’s Office, the Campbells, Kison, Brayden, and Kelli all described Taber as constantly drunk and constantly trying to say things to upset and hurt others. For this reason, Taber was not informed about Kison and Brayden’s marriage on Valentine’s Day, 2025. Taber only learned of the marriage during the argument with Steve because, when Taber objected to Brayden’s presence at the house, Steve told Taber about the marriage. Taber said to his new brother-in-law, “You got one coming for you,” and walked towards him, only for Brayden to say that he was not going to fight Taber.

As Taber sat in the garage while his family and neighbors sat in golf carts in the Allen driveway, Taber sent a text message to the lender for a house that Kison and Brayden were scheduled to close on Wednesday, February 26, 2025. At 6:56 p.m., Taber texted the following to the lender, who days earlier called Taber to check on the status of Taber’s New Orleans mortgage that was co-signed by Steve: “The information I’ve sent you is photo-shopped and I can prove it. I’m very behind on my mortgage payments. Almost $13,000 behind. No one has helped me catch up and I’m close to loosing the place.” Unknown to Taber, the lender had already independently verified that the mortgage on the New Orleans residence was in good standing, so Taber failed to disrupt his sister and brother-in-law from closing on their house.

The interaction between Taber, Steve, and everyone else in the driveway culminated with Steve crying, “sobbing” as described by Linda Campbell, and saying, “I don’t know how to help you, Taber.” Taber eventually left the garage and went to his room. Then, the Campbells, Kison, and Brayden left the Allen’s residence at approximately 7:45 p.m. None of these witnesses ever saw Steve in possession of a firearm during this entire interaction with Taber. According to Kelli Allen, after Taber went to his room and everyone else left, she and Steve went into the garage and watched television and did not see Taber until the interaction that led Steve to tell Kelli to call 911 call at 10:14 p.m.

At 8:38 p.m., presumably from his room, Taber sent another text message to the lender for his sister’s house, saying: “I’m sorry to that I lied about it.. I just don’t want to get in trouble.. but now that I’ve told you the truth I feel better. Please don’t use any of the info I’ve sent you it’s faulty. If you choose to use the information that I’ve sent you, I’ll have to report that I’ve told you the truth.”

Sometime between 8 p.m. and 9 p.m., as best as can be assessed from screenshots taken with cell phones, Taber posted the following on Facebook: “My dad just held a gun to my head while screaming are you ready?!?! After calling me entitled, because I asked him to pay for a door to be fixed that he said he would pay to fix.” Given that Taber obviously had the ability to post this message on Facebook and text the mortgage lender, he also obviously had the ability to call 911 to report this allegation, but he did not do so.

Once law enforcement arrived at the house in response to Kelli Allen’s 911 call at 10:14 p.m., Taber repeated the accusation that Steve pointed a gun at his head. He said to deputies: “While they were outside of the garage, he closes the garage and he goes into his safe, and makes it seem like he’s going to get a gun and then he puts either a gun, I don’t know I don’t see it, or his knuckles or something to the back of my head and says ‘are you ready, we’re both going, I’m ready for us to both go.’ I swear to God that’s what happened and the cameras in there should prove it. And I said, ‘yea let’s go.’ Then at that point, they come through, the neighbor and my sister’s boyfriend, come through the other door, pull him off of me.” A deputy asked Steve Allen about the security cameras and asked to access the recordings. The deputy’s body-worn camera shows Allen pull up the video recordings on his phone and show the deputy multiple video clips of the time period requested by the deputy. This interaction ends with Allen holding his phone up to two deputies and telling them, “I mean, y’all are welcome to take it and look at it all you want to,” to which one deputy responds, “I’m good.”

The security videos were not taken as evidence and the District Attorney’s Office has not obtained the security camera recordings. However, the deputy’s review of the recordings makes clear that he did not see any recordings of Steve Allen holding a gun to his son’s head or pretending to do so. Furthermore, Michael Campbell directly refutes Taber’s story in that Campbell says the garage door was never closed while he was there and that he never entered the garage through another door. Campbell said he never had to pull Steve Allen off of Taber and Taber never said a word about Steve threatening him with a gun.

The first time Taber alleged that his father pointed a gun at him was on Facebook. After Taber’s Facebook post, Steve Allen received texts and calls from family and friends about the Facebook post. Steve and Kelli went to Taber’s room, but the door was locked and Taber would not respond to Steve’s demand that Taber delete the post and open his door. In anger, Steve beat on the door and punched the door, causing a small cut on Steve’s knuckle and damage to the door. Kelli then used her fingernails to open door and in response, according to statements from Steve and Kelli Allen, Taber jumped out of bed, asked Steve, “you want to go?” and pushed Steve. Steve then grabbed Taber and took him to the ground.

As Steve and his 33-year-old son essentially fought on the floor, Steve told Kelli to call 911, which she did at 10:14 p.m. After giving their address, the 911 operator asks Kelli, “what’s going on?” and Kelli replies: “My son is belligerent and attacking my husband.” Kelli confirms that they are physically fighting and can be heard trying to stop them from fighting. Ultimately, Kelli separates Steve and Taber, with Taber staying in his room and Steve going into the kitchen until law enforcement arrived on scene. In the call, and as documented in the 911 Event Report, Kellie explains that her son has been drinking all day.

When deputies arrived, they interviewed Steve, Kelli, and Taber. There are consistencies and inconsistencies between their statements to the deputies, but all three agreed that neither party punched each other. Taber told the deputies that his father was angry about the social media post and said, “my dad pinned me down, my dad never hit me . . . he grabbed me, he held me, he grasped me.” When the deputy asked Taber about the bruising to his arm and torso, Taber said, “all of this is from him grabbing me and him being pissy with me, not from him hitting me or doing anything like that.”

During their investigation, the deputies noted a cut on Steve’s knuckles, bruising and red marks to Taber’s torso and arm, Taber’s broken necklace on the ground, Taber’s bed dislodged from its normal location, and a dent in the door to the room where Taber has been allowed to reside. Based on the damage to the door and the bruising observed on Taber’s body, the deputies made the judgment call in the moment to arrest Steve Allen for misdemeanor Battery-Family Violence and misdemeanor Criminal Trespass.

Also indicative of Taber’s motivation and mindset during and after this incident, at 2:27 a.m., Taber sent the following text message to his younger sister, “Ya f*cked with big bro. That’s a big no no.” She understood this as a threat, and on February 27, 2025, she obtained a Temporary Protective Order against her brother from a Coweta County Superior Court Judge.

After analyzing the above-referenced evidence in light of Georgia law, the District Attorney has concluded that Steve Allen did not commit a crime. According to OCGA 16-7-21, “a person commits the offense of criminal trespass when he or she intentionally damages any property of another without consent of that other person[.]” This statute can be used to prosecute a family member or spouse for damaging marital or family property when such property is partially owned by another person, such as a spouse or family member. Gooch v. State, 289 Ga. App. 74 (1) (2007). In the case of Steve Allen, William Taber Allen is not the owner of the door that Steve Allen punched. Even if Kelli Allen is the partial owner of that door, the evidence is clear that she consented to Steve Allen damaging the door and she did not want him arrested for it. According to OCGA 16-5-23.1(a) & (b), “a person commits the offense of battery when he or she intentionally causes substantial physical harm or visible bodily harm to another.” OCGA 16-3-21 states that “a person is justified in . . . using force against another when and to the extent that he or she reasonably believes that such . . . force is necessary to defend himself . . . against such other’s imminent use of unlawful force[.]”

In the District Attorney’s view, Steve Allen acted reasonably and lawfully in grabbing his son and taking him to the ground, even though it broke his son’s necklace and caused his son bruising and red marks. Some of the first words out of Kelli Allen’s mouth to the 911 operator were “my son is belligerent and attacking my husband.” Under Georgia law, this statement would be admissible in trial as a “present sense impression,” which occurs when a person describes an event while the person perceives the event. “The underlying theory of the present sense impression exception is that the substantial contemporaneity of the event and the statement negate the likelihood of deliberate or conscious misrepresentation.” Grimes v. State, 364 Ga. App. 518, 521 (2022).

In short, Kelli Allen’s statement to the 911 operator, by itself, clearly establishes that Steve Allen was justified in using some force against his son in order to defend himself. Taber Allen’s own description to deputies of the force his father used against him, by itself, makes it clear that Steve only used the force necessary to defend himself. Therefore, Steve Allen did not commit a crime by causing his son visible bodily harm or by breaking his necklace.