A Virginia teacher, Kimberly Winters, was awarded a $5 million judgment by a jury in a civil case against a sheriff’s detective who arrested her in an early morning raid after a former student accused her of sex abuse. Winters previously taught high school English in Loudoun County.
The case dates back to the fall of 2018 when authorities rammed into her bedroom, grabbed her from bed, and arrested her, leaving her to stand outside her house in handcuffs for neighbours to see.
She was charged with indecent liberties with a minor by someone in a custodial or supervisory relationship for allegedly having sex with one of her students.
The case was dropped months later once prosecutors further investigated the allegations.
The student and his mother brought the sexual abuse allegations up after he graduated from high school.
Still, authorities at first declined to move forward because they believed he was 18 during the alleged contact.
The accuser then changed the dates of the alleged abuse to when he was 17, and his mother claimed to have texts between her son and the teacher to prove she was guilty.
Winters reportedly had an alibi for both dates provided to police, but Det. Peter Roque did not interview Winters or review her whereabouts, the lawsuit states.
Search warrants turned up nothing, and phone records also led to no evidence of sexual contact when he was a minor, Winters’ lawsuit reportedly states.
The detective was accused of bad police work in the sexual abuse case.
After dropping the charge, the Loudoun County school board approved firing Winters.
Her lawyer said the district wrongly appealed to the school board after an administrative judge found Winters did nothing wrong.
Plofchan alleged the school board relied on possibly fake phone records to prove Winters had an inappropriate relationship with the student.
Roque’s lawyer insisted at the civil suit trial that Winters made a “tacit admission” in a conversation with the student’s mother that she had sex with him.
The former student’s mother told the Washington Post she still believes the former teacher sexually abused her son.
Winters denied any sexual contact with the accuser. Plofchan argued Roque investigated on a false belief “to the detriment to this woman here.”
“She paid the price because he heard some crazy story, some cockamamie story, and he didn’t corroborate any of it,” he said.
According to reports, the sheriff’s department plans to file an appeal to the lawsuit judgment.
»Jury awards $5 million judgmen to Kimberly Winters«
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