When does physical contact become groping? When does an out-of-class relationship become abuse? Is the disgruntled teenager lying? Those are some of the questions juries must often decide when a teacher is accused of sexual misconduct with a student. And in some cases, a jury clears the teacher — but the damage to the instructor’s reputation is already done.
Several Washington-area educators have been acquitted on sexual-abuse charges in recent years. Gym teacher Sean Lanigan was acquitted in Fairfax County of molesting a student last year. In 2007, a jury found D.C. middle school teacher Ricardo Roberts not guilty of having sex with a 13-year-old student. In 2005, Prince William County special education teacher David Perino was acquitted of sexually abusing a student with Down syndrome.
The cases can be “he-said, she-said” affairs, leaving a jury to determine which side is more credible.
Lanigan is still trying to regain his career and salvage his reputation. Perino was fired after his acquittal and has moved to Pennsylvania.
“Your life is turned upside down,” said David Bernstein, a law professor at George Mason University. “Even if you win, you still lost.”
Peter Greenspun, Lanigan’s attorney, said Lanigan would never fully be able to escape the false accusations.
“To many people, Sean Lanigan is and always will be a sex offender,” he said.
To complicate matters more, sex offenders often cover up their abuse and intimidate victims, making the cases tough to prosecute.
That makes prosecutors reluctant to back down — even in cases like Lanigan’s, where the accuser and a friend recanted part of their initial statements and others in the gym, where the alleged molestation took place, said they saw nothing, Bernstein said.
“When you think you have a case, you want to crack down on it as a warning,” he said.
