LEESBURG, Va. — Prosecutors called a former Loudoun County special education teacher to the stand Tuesday in the trial of the former superintendent accused of retaliating against her for participating in a grand jury investigation of his handling of sexual assaults reported in the district.
Former Loudoun County Public Schools superintendent Dr. Scott Ziegler began trial Tuesday on two counts of making a false statement and penalizing an employee for participating in a grand jury. He’s accused of not renewing the contract of former Rosa Lee Carter Elementary School teacher Erin Brooks after she testified to a special grand jury about how the district handled complaints about a student inappropriately touching her, a teacher’s aide and a substitute teacher.
Brooks and her former aide, Laurie Vandermuelen, called as the first witnesses in the state’s case against Ziegler, who was fired in Decembre 2022 after a special grand jury’s report into his handling of two other sexual assault incidents at Loudoun County high schools was made public.
Both women described their efforts to have school administrators address a 10-year-old student who repeatedly touched them inappropriately. Vandermuelen, whose contract with the school was also not renewed, said the situation eventually became intolerable.
“It was multiple times a day, all day long,” she said.
Vandermeulen eventually was connected through a friend to Ian Prior, who offered to speak on her behalf at a Loudoun County Public School Board meeting. She testified she was not aware at the time Prior was the director of Fight for Schools, a conservative group that has criticized the school system’s policies around COVID-19 and transgender students. Vandermuelen later gave an interview on Fox News host Laura Ingraham’s show, but said she only did so after learning her contract was not being renewed.
Ziegler was only charged with retaliation in relation to Brooks. On Tuesday, prosecutor Theosophina Stamos, a special counsel with Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares’ office, sought to pin that decision squarely on Ziegler. Stamos called Dr. Daniel Smith, who served as Ziegler’s chief of staff and temporarily as acting superintendent following his firing.
On direct examination, Smith said Ziegler, as superintendent, was the only person who could place a recommendation not to renew a teacher’s contract on the school board’s consent agenda. Stamos also introduced as evidence a letter Ziegler sent to Brooks informing her that her contract was up for non-renewal.
On cross-examination from Ziegler’s attorney Erin Harrigan, however, Smith elaborated that the recommendation not to renew a teacher’s contract could have originated from multiple school officials and Ziegler would have only been one part of a group of individuals making that decision.
The trial was expected to continue into at least Wednesday. Loudoun County Circuit Court Judge Douglas Fleming Jr., who is presiding over the case, made the unusual decision Tuesday to lock the courtroom doors during public testimony in the trial. Members of the press and public were able to enter the court during limited windows and watch the trial, but were return upon leaving the room.