The former superintendent of the Loudoun County, Va., college system has been indicted over his dealing with of two sexual assaults towards feminine college students within the district — a case that performed a central function in final 12 months’s Virginia gubernatorial election.
Scott Ziegler, who was fired from his place final week, was charged by a particular grand jury with one rely of misdemeanor false publication, one rely of misdemeanor prohibited conduct and one rely of misdemeanor penalizing an worker for a courtroom look, commonwealth Lawyer Common Jason Miyares introduced Monday.
District spokesman Wayde Byard was indicted on one felony rely of perjury for allegedly mendacity below oath on Aug. 2 and was positioned on administrative go away.
Ziegler was fired after the particular grand jury issued a scathing report on the assaults, which had been perpetrated by the identical male pupil on Could 28, 2021 at Stone Bridge Excessive Faculty in Ashburn and on Oct. 6, 2021 at close by Broad Run Excessive Faculty.
The incident drew nationwide consideration after the daddy of the sufferer within the first assault was arrested at a faculty board assembly on June 22, 2021. The dad, recognized as Scott Smith, had charged that his daughter had been raped by a “boy in a skirt.”
On the identical assembly, Ziegler mentioned that “the predator transgender pupil or particular person merely doesn't exist,” and added that “to my data we don’t have any file of assaults occurring in our bogs.”
Nevertheless, emails that surfaced weeks after the Oct. 6 assault indicated that Ziegler notified college board officers in regards to the Could 28 assault on the identical day that it occurred. The particular grand jury report described Ziegler’s statements on the June 22 assembly as a “bald-faced lie.”
The assailant was quietly transferred to a different college, purportedly in an effort to restrict backlash over a district coverage permitting college students to make use of bogs that correspond to their gender id.
Based on the particular grand jury report, academics at each colleges warned directors of the coed’s disturbing conduct weeks earlier than every assault, with the teenager’s grandmother warning a probation officer that her grandson was a “sociopath.”
In January of this 12 months, the boy was sentenced to a residential remedy facility till he turns 18 and ordered to be positioned on the intercourse offender registry for the remainder of his life.
In handing down the sentence, Choose Pamela Brooks mentioned psychosexual and psychological evaluations of the teenager had “scared me.”
“I don’t understand how else to place it. They scared me for your self. They scared me for your loved ones. They scared me for society,” she mentioned.
Then-Republican gubernatorial candidate Glenn Youngkin vowed within the closing days of the 2021 election marketing campaign to research Loudoun County Public Faculties’ dealing with of the assaults, saying the district “had an obligation of care and so they failed.”
Youngkin signed off on the investigation hours after being sworn into workplace in January of this 12 months. The particular grand jury was empaneled in April and moved to cost Ziegler and Byard in June and September, respectively, although the indictments had been solely unsealed Monday.
Two of the misdemeanor fees towards Ziegler stem from his alleged retaliation towards particular schooling trainer Erin Brooks “for expressing views on issues of public concern” and for making a courtroom look.
Brooks filed a lawsuit towards the college district in June, claiming that her contract wasn’t renewed after she complained that a pupil had repeatedly sexually assaulted her.
Youngkin expressed his gratitude towards Miyares and the particular grand jury in feedback to WJLA-TV Sunday, earlier than the indictments had been unsealed, saying that the district “didn’t do their job.”
“The truth that it took an election, a brand new governor, and on day one an govt order to get this investigated, I believe, actually speaks to the truth that I believe the Loudoun County Faculty Board let everybody down and didn’t do their job,” he mentioned.
“I’m so pleased with the Lawyer Common’s Workplace,” Youngkin added. “And I wish to thank the grand jury for the intensive effort and work that they put in to light up what was a horrible, horrific circumstance for all Loudoun County and Virginia.”
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