chanel
Silver Member
Sean Lanigans nightmare began in January 2010, when the principal at Centre Ridge Elementary School pulled him out of the physical education class he was teaching and quietly walked him into an interrogation with two Fairfax County police detectives.
He had no warning that a 12-year-old girl at the Centreville school had accused him of groping and molesting her in the gym.
Within two weeks of the accusers report without ever speaking to the girl Fairfax detectives arrested Lanigan and charged him with aggravated sexual battery and abduction. The Washington Post is not naming the accuser because she is a minor.
Police issued a press release with Lanigans booking photo and home address, and the school district sent home a letter about his arrest. TV trucks descended on the school and his neighborhood, and Lanigans reputation took a lasting beating.
Mr. Lanigans a jerk, the girl told her friends, according to teachers and trial testimony. Im going to make him pay.
Greenspun gently cross-examined, and she admitted a history of bullying younger children, her conflicts with Lanigan and her Facebook posting that it was a joke. The girl also acknowledged she was mad at the gym teacher for not playing her favorite music in PE class.
Lanigan remains in limbo, nearly a year after a jurys acquittal. The Fairfax School District transferred him from Centre Ridge in a move that ultimately forced his wife to quit her job. School officials are now transferring him again. And the district has refused to pay his $125,000 in legal fees, even though Virginia law allows reimbursement for employees who are cleared of wrongdoing on the job.
Fairfax teacher Sean Lanigan still suffering from false molestation allegations - The Washington Post
His lawyer wanted him to plead guilty to a lesser charge. He refused because he had done nothing wrong.
Should there be any consequence for the student?