The child abuse case against Susan L. Burke is “quite simple,” Montgomery County prosecutor Karla Smith told jurors Monday.
Burke is “incapable of controlling her anger in the classroom,” Smith said in her opening statement at the 36-year-old teacher’s trial on two counts of second-degree child abuse. Burke is accused of choking and scratching two students in her kindergarten class at Greencastle Elementary School during the 2009-2010 school year.
But Burke’s defense attorneys contend that she never harmed her students and the students’ claims are unfounded statements made in response to leading questions from parents and investigators.
Uncertainties about the case emerged quickly during the trial in Montgomery County Circuit Court when one of the students Burke allegedly abused took the stand as the prosecution’s first witness.
The boy, who was 6 years old at the time of the incidents and is now 8, testified that Burke scratched his neck and “choked” him by grabbing his neck. But the child remembered few details about how many times the incidents took place, when and why they occurred or what exactly happened.
When the boy was in trouble, Burke would “yell at me or choke me or something,” he testified.
When prosecutor Ryan Wechsler asked him to describe what Burke would do, he said, “I’m not sure.”
Later, under cross examination, defense attorney Todd Mohink asked the student to demonstrate Burke’s actions.
“How did she do it?” Mohink asked. “Can you show me?”
“I’m not sure,” the boy said.
The exchanges were similar to testimony from Burke’s first trial, when she was acquitted in October of 10 counts of second-degree assault. In those cases, she was charged with choking several of her first-grade students at Greencastle during the 2010-2011 school year. Students who testified during that trial also had difficulty recounting what transpired during the alleged choking incidents.
In his opening statement, Mohink told jurors that the students were subjected to repeated, suggestive questions from their parents, police and school administrators, and gave answers they thought would please the adults.
The mother of the boy who testified Monday also took the witness stand. She said she didn’t believe the scratches on her son’s neck were serious enough to merit calling the police or taking him to the doctor.
The jury of six men and six women will continue hearing testimony in the case Tuesday. The trial is expected to last three to four days.
