WESTBROOK – The lawyer for a member of the Westbrook School Committee who is charged with hindering an investigation into a former Westbrook teacher’s relationship with a student is seeking to have the case dismissed based on new evidence.
Representing Suzanne Joyce, Bill Childs, of Portland’s Childs, Rundlett, Fifield, Shumway & Altschuler, said he would file a motion to dismiss the charges on Wednesday. A clerk at the court said nothing had been filed by Wednesday afternoon.
Childs appeared in Cumberland County Unified Court in Portland on Tuesday for Joyce’s motion hearing and presented new evidence that, Childs said, proved Joyce did not commit the crime.
She is accused of threatening another school employee, Andrew Keirstead, not to discuss a relationship between Dereck Gilman, 24, a former Westbrook Middle School employee, and a 17-year-old student.
Childs said that last weekend he met with Keirstead, who signed a statement saying, “Suzanne Joyce did not threaten, intimidate or deceive” him.
“Based on the information provided by the district attorney to date, there is no factual basis that a jury could conclude that Suzanne Joyce is guilty,” said Childs outside of the courtroom Tuesday.
A grand jury indictment against Joyce alleges that the she “used force or intimidation” against a school employee, Keirstead, to prevent him from informing officials about the suspected activities of Gilman. Keirstead is an educational technician and baseball coach in the district. Childs has also provided a polygraph test that Joyce passed in early August that he said proves she did not threaten Keirstead.
If the motion to dismiss is not accepted, Joyce will appear back in Cumberland County Unified Court on Sept. 9 for trial.
Gilman, a former Westbrook Middle School special education technician, has been charged with unlawful sexual touching and sexual abuse of a minor. The charges stemmed from a seven-month investigation from May 2012 to January 2013.
He resigned from the school on April 1, months after the investigation into his alleged behavior ended.
Gilman’s case was not thrown out and he will appear in court on Sept. 9. Until this week, the two cases have been tied together.
All the charges are class E misdemeanors.
Joyce, 51, has not spoken publicly about the case.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
