MARTINSBURG, W.Va. — Three women facing charges for failing to report alleged verbal abuse of a non-verbal special needs student at Berkeley Heights Elementary School will be in court early next year after a plea agreement offered on their behalf was rejected by a judge.
The Journal reports Berkeley County Circuit Judge Laura Faircloth rejected the plea deal recently involving former teacher Christina Victoria Lester and teacher’s aides June Elizabeth Yurish and Kristin Lynn Douty, saying that the court found the deal unacceptable due to the lack of remorse shown by the defendants.
Berkeley County Prosecutor Catie Wilkes Delligatti confirmed the judge’s decision during an appearance Monday on Panhandle Live on Metronews affiliate WEPM/WCST, The Panhandle News Network.
Delligatti said her office will be ready to take the case to trial but she couldn’t say much else.
“There’s actually a rule of professional conduct, Rule 3.6, that prohibits any litigants, any attorneys from talking about any potential plea of guilty. It’s for good reason. Pre-trial publicity is very much frowned up on and why you hear me say I cannot comment on any given case,” Delligatti said.
Delligatti said the trial for the three women will likely happen in late January 2024.
“Like with any other case, the state will be ready and willing to proceed and try that case,” Delligatti said.
The defendants have been charged with allegedly failing to report abuse that was captured on a recording device.
In the fall of 2018, Adri Pack’s mother Amber placed a recording device in her daughter Adri’s hair that recorded alleged verbal abuse at Berkeley Heights Elementary School. Adri, who is a non-verbal special needs student, was six-years-old at the time of the alleged events.
The following August, Pack family attorney Ben Salango told the Panhandle News Network, “As I understand it, they’ve been charged with failing to report suspected child abuse. Teachers, of course, are mandatory reporters. If they witness or suspect abuse, they have a legal obligation to report it. This was going on in the classroom and so their failure to report resulted in these charges.”
In addition to the charges, the three are also facing a lawsuit from West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey that would require them to pay $5,000 for each violation of the state’s Human Rights Act.