WESTBROOK – Little information has surfaced in the case of a Westbrook School Committee member charged with hindering an investigation into a former educator in the school system.
Suzanne Joyce, 51, a longtime public figure in Westbrook, was charged last week with hindering apprehension or prosecution after a three-month investigation by the Cumberland County District Attorney’s Office that started in January.
The employee, Dereck Gilman, 24, a former Westbrook Middle School special education educational technician, has been charged with unlawful sexual touching and sexual abuse of a minor following a seven-month investigation from May 2012 to January 2013.
All the charges are class E misdemeanors.
Court documents in the case have yet to link Joyce, an elected school committee member since 2010, and Gilman, who resigned April 1, months after an investigation into his alleged behavior ended.
Joyce’s attorney, Bill Childs of Childs, Rundlett, Fifield & Altshuler in Portland, did not return phone calls by the American Journal’s deadline Wednesday afternoon. Joyce said she had been advised by her lawyer not to comment on the ongoing investigation.
Tamara Getchell, business and communications coordinator for the Cumberland County District Attorney’s Office, said the indictment against Joyce alleges that the she “used force or intimidation” against a school employee, Andrew Keirstead, to prevent him from informing officials about the suspected activities of Gilman. Keirstead is an educational technician and baseball coach in the district.
According to Superintendent Marc Gousse, Gilman was hired in May 2012 as an intern and was added to the substitute teacher list. Gilman was then hired as an educational technician in October 2012 – five months after an investigation into Gilman’s activities was under way.
Gilman and Keirstead did not return attempts to contact them through email.
Joyce and Gilman are set to be tried to together. Their first appearance will be Tuesday, June 4, at 8:30 a.m. at the Cumberland County Unified Court.
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