BELLINGHAM — The jury trial for three Bellingham Public Schools administrators who were charged criminally with failing to report a high school student’s sexual assaults that were brought to their attention has been rescheduled.
The rescheduling of the trial comes roughly a week after The Bellingham Herald first reported that the lead Bellingham Police Department detective investigating the cases is now himself the subject of departmental and criminal investigations.
At a hearing Tuesday afternoon, Whatcom County District Court Commissioner Tony Parise rescheduled the three school administrators’ jury trial to Aug. 28. A pre-trial hearing is set for Aug. 25.
Parise also consolidated all three of the cases Tuesday so that they may be heard as one jury trial instead of three separate ones.
Defense attorneys for the administrators also withdrew their motion to dismiss the cases at Tuesday’s hearing.
Whatcom County Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Levi Uhrig had previously requested the administrators’ jury trial be rescheduled during a July 11 hearing in the case. Uhrig informed the pro-tem commissioner that the additional attorney handling the case with him has medical appointments over the next several weeks, and that a new detective had taken over the case.
Criminal defense attorney Bob Butler then clarified for the commissioner in open court that the reason the state was likely seeking a new trial date was because the former lead detective on the cases is likely soon to be placed on the “Brady” list, The Herald previously reported.
The “Brady” list, maintained by the county prosecutor’s office, is a list of law enforcement officers whose credibility has been called into question. The officers on the list have most commonly been found to have been dishonest, lied while in an official capacity, or have been accused or found guilty of past misconduct.
Prosecutors are legally required to turn the list over to defense attorneys if an officer on the “Brady” list is involved or worked on the case. This information can then be used to impeach the officer as a witness if they are called to testify in court.
The pro-tem commissioner declined July 11 to rule on whether to reschedule the administrators’ jury trial because he was temporarily filling in for the normal commissioner hearing the case and set a hearing for Tuesday hearing on the matter.
Tuesday hearing
At Tuesday’s hearing, Whatcom County Assistant Chief Criminal Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Dona Bracke said she was requesting the administrators’ jury trial be rescheduled due to medical reasons.
Bracke asked the commissioner for a standard continuance in the case of roughly six to eight weeks.
Butler, the defense attorney, said while he was sympathetic to the prosecutor’s medical issues, there were other attorneys in the prosecutor’s office who could handle the case. Having a different prosecutor handle the jury trial would not require such a long continuance, Butler said during Tuesday’s hearing.
But Bracke said she has been the only prosecuting attorney assigned to the case since the beginning, the only one to sit in on several interviews, and said that no one else in the office is privy to all of the information she has in the case. Having a different prosecutor handle the trial would require them to listen “to a ridiculous number of hours of interviews to get caught up to speed,” she said.
Bracke also said the other attorneys in the office have full caseloads and that none would likely have the time to get caught up with the case unless a full continuance was granted.
Parise, the commissioner, ultimately decided to reschedule the administrators’ jury trials, but did not grant the prosecution’s request for a full continuance in the case.
He said while he was sensitive to the prosecutor’s medical issues, he did not feel comfortable pushing the trial date that far out, adding that the prosecutor’s office has many attorneys and the situation was different than dealing with a personal attorney. Parise said he understood that it may take some time for a different attorney to get familiar with the case and said he wanted to balance that with the administrators’ speedy trial rights.
Parise then rescheduled the administrators’ jury trial to Aug. 28.
Investigations
In February 2022, Bellingham Police Detective Adam S. McGinty, with the special victims unit, began investigating a former Squalicum High School female student’s disclosures that a male student had repeatedly sexually assaulted her, according to previous reporting in The Herald.
Roughly a month later, McGinty also began investigating the three Bellingham Public Schools administrators the female student had reported the assaults to, and their alleged failures to notify law enforcement or the Washington State Department of Children, Youth & Families, according to public records obtained by The Herald.
In early December, the administrators were charged with failing to report the female student’s sexual assaults, which were brought to their attention nearly a year prior, The Herald previously reported.
McGinty is now himself the subject of a Bellingham Police Department internal affairs investigation and the subject of a criminal investigation with the Mount Vernon Police Department, the public records show.
As of Monday, July 17, neither investigation had concluded and no determinations had been made, according to Bellingham and Mount Vernon police.
The Bellingham Police Department started its internal affairs investigation of McGinty on May 18, according to Bellingham Police Deputy Chief Don Almer.
Almer declined to discuss the investigation, saying it is “an active and ongoing administrative investigation that has not yet been completed,” but did say that the allegations “do not involve domestic violence, crimes of violence, acts of a sexual nature, any public safety issues, or drugs/alcohol.”
McGinty was placed on paid administrative leave on June 7 in accordance with agency policy, Almer said in a previous email to The Herald.
The department’s Office of Professional Responsibility is finalizing documentation and said he hopes the administrative investigation will be concluded by the end of July, Almer said in a Monday, July 17, email to The Herald.
The Mount Vernon Police Department is also conducting a criminal investigation into the allegations at the Bellingham Police Department’s request.
The Mount Vernon Police Department began its investigation into McGinty on June 15, Mount Vernon Police Lt. Mike Moore previously told The Herald.
As of Monday, July 17, there were no updates on the criminal investigation or an estimated timeline of when it may be completed, Moore said.
When asked what the nature of the criminal allegations against McGinty were, Moore said “the extent of the criminal investigation has not yet been determined.”
McGinty was previously the lead detective handling the investigation into the three school administrators’ alleged failures to report a high school student’s sexual assaults. Public records show McGinty spent more than a year working on the cases.
He has since been removed from handling the cases. He was hired by Bellingham police on March 1, 2015 and was promoted to detective in January 2018.
Background
The administrators — Meghan V. Dunham, Jeremy Gilbert Louzao and Maude Chimere Hackney — were each criminally cited Dec. 7 in Whatcom County District Court with one count of failure to report, which is a gross misdemeanor.
They have entered not guilty pleas. Gross misdemeanors are punishable by up to one year in jail and a $5,000 fine.
The school district is providing legal defense for the three administrators.
All three administrators are mandatory reporters and required by state law to report any suspected abuse or neglect of a child to law enforcement or the Washington State Department of Children, Youth & Families.
None of the three reported the female student’s sexual assaults, The Herald previously reported.
At the time the criminal citations were issued, Louzao and Dunham were serving as assistant principals at Squalicum High School, while Hackney was an assistant principal at Bellingham High School.
All three were reassigned in early January to the school district’s Department of Teaching and Learning. They were also included among the list of 60 administrative staff members the district recommended to the school board for employment for the 2023-24 school year.
The school board approved that list at its May 18 meeting, The Herald previously reported.
The former Squalicum High School student who has accused the district of mishandling her sexual assault reports filed a federal civil rights lawsuit Dec. 7 against Bellingham Public Schools. The student, who has since withdrawn from the high school and is now attending another school, accused the district in her lawsuit of violating her federal Title IX rights, failing its duty to protect and care for her and neglecting its duties to report the sexual assaults to law enforcement.
She previously sought $1 million in damages from the district before filing the federal lawsuit.
In its January response to the lawsuit, Bellingham Public Schools denied it mishandled the student’s sexual assault reports. The district said it took reasonable steps to stop the reported harassment, that the assault allegations contained in the student’s lawsuit were not reported to the administrators and that the conduct that was reported to them was not considered abuse or neglect under state law.
The federal lawsuit and all three of the administrators’ criminal cases are currently pending, county and federal court records show.
The male student accused of sexually assaulting the female student pleaded guilty to amended charges of two counts of fourth-degree assault with sexual motivation May 17 in Whatcom County District Court. He also resolved two unrelated criminal cases.
He was previously facing a charge of one count of indecent liberties by forcible compulsion, which is a felony, for assaulting the female student.
In the sex crime case, he will undergo an evaluation for a special sex offender disposition alternative, which if granted, would allow him to participate in treatment.
The prosecution and defense attorneys are expected to present an agreed resolution at the boy’s disposition hearing recommending a special sex offender alternative. The alternative sentence would include two years of community supervision, an anti-harassment no-contact order with the female student and restitution to be determined.
If the sex offender alternative is granted and then later revoked, a manifest injustice sentence of 15-20 weeks at a juvenile detention institution will be recommended.
The boy’s disposition hearing is tentatively scheduled for Wednesday, July 19, according to court records.
