2 indicted, including former superintendent, in Loudoun Co. schools probe
The former superintendent and spokesman for the school system in Loudoun County, Virginia, have been indicted by a special grand jury.
Former superintendent Scott Ziegler has been charged with one count of misdemeanor false publication, one count of misdemeanor prohibited conduct and one count of misdemeanor penalizing an employee for a court appearance, the office of Attorney General Jason Miyares said in a statement Monday; spokesman Wayde Byard has been indicted on one count of felony perjury.
Ziegler was fired last week, after the special grand jury issued a report about the school system’s handling of two sexual assaults by the same student in 2021.
The indictments were ordered unsealed Monday by a judge, Miyares’ office said; the indictments themselves date from months ago.
The first indictment against Ziegler charges that he “did knowingly and willfully state, deliver or transmit by any means whatever to any publisher, or employee of a publisher, of any newspaper, magazine, or other publication or to any owner, or employee of an owner, of any radio station, television station, news service or cable service, any false and untrue statement, knowing the same to be false or untrue, concerning any person or corporation, with intent that the same shall be published, broadcast or otherwise disseminated.”
It says he made the statement June 22, 2021. That’s the day of the Loudoun County School Board meeting that a raucous discussion of the sexual assaults made nationwide headlines. The special grand jury report said a witness testified that Ziegler told “a bald-faced lie” when he said at the meeting “to my knowledge we don’t have any record of assaults happening in our bathrooms” a month after such an assault had just happened.
Ziegler said shortly after the meeting that his remarks applied specifically to accusations of assaults by people who were in those bathrooms thanks to the school system’s transgender policy.
The second and third indictments against Ziegler date from Sept. 28 of this year, and charge that Ziegler retaliated against Erin Brooks “for expressing views on matters of public concern” and for making a court appearance.
Brooks was one of two special education teachers who sued the school board in June. Brooks claimed she was retaliated against when her contract wasn’t renewed after she complained that a student had repeatedly sexually assaulted her.
The school system said the student was a nonverbal elementary school student with significant intellectual disabilities, whose actions were being mischaracterized; the school system’s statement said the teachers improperly shared students’ records, an accusation Brooks and the other teacher denied.
Byard is accused of lying under oath Aug. 2.
Miyares’ spokeswoman, Victoria LaCivita, told WTOP the special grand jury has not been discharged yet.
WTOP’s Neal Augenstein and Jack Moore contributed to this report.