2 law enforcement officials found personally responsible - jury awards victim $5 million

[BlueWaveNeverEnd]

Jury awards Va. teacher $5 million over wrongful sex abuse case
The teacher was accused of sexually abusing a 17-year-old student, though she denies his claims

The first clue that Kimberly Winters, a high school English teacher, had that a former student had accused her of sexually abusing him was when Loudoun County sheriff’s deputies in full riot gear burst into her bedroom one morning with their rifles drawn.

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Winters said the deputies yanked her out of bed, handcuffed her, and made her stand in the front yard of her Sterling, Va., home in her pajamas while they patted her down, in full view of the neighborhood.

When she went to the Loudoun jail, Winters said, she was strip-searched, which her lawyer said violated the sheriff’s policies because she wasn’t booked into the jail. But her mug shot was taken and distributed to the news media along with a press release saying she was charged with sexually abusing one of her students when he was 17. Soon, she was fired from her job at Park View High School, after teaching in Loudoun for eight years.


When Loudoun prosecutors looked at the case brought by Detective Peter Roque, they promptly dismissed all charges. Winters sued Roque and Loudoun Sheriff Mike Chapman (R). And after a five-day trial earlier this month, a Loudoun jury took less than two hours to find the two law enforcement officials liable for Winters’s economic and punitive damages. They awarded her $5 million.

It appeared Roque had not seriously investigated any of the student’s claims, said Winters’s lawyer, Thomas K. Plofchan. On a sworn search warrant application in November 2018, Roque had written, “Witnesses’ statements are corroborated by phone records,” but there were no records, Plofchan said the evidence showed.


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Plofchan took on the case, and in early 2019 presented his evidence of Roque’s lack of investigation to Loudoun prosecutors, who then asked to see Roque’s proof, namely text records the accuser’s mother claimed to have. Winters alleged in the lawsuit that the mother then told Roque “she had been ‘bluffing.’” The charges against Winters were dismissed, but the Loudoun school board still fired her.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2023/02/26/va-teacher-sex-abuse-case-lawsuit/

[uponit7771]

1. "mother then told Roque "she had been 'bluffing.'"" Mother needs to be in jail !!!

[Auggie]

2. +1

[lpbk2713]

5. Knowingly made a false statement during a criminal investigation.

Lock her up. Lock her up. Lock her up.

[AllaN01Bear]

3. good , but do we always have to use in some of the article bold text? hurts my eyes .

[BlueWaveNeverEnd]

4. sorry...will undo

[Bayard]

6. I'm all for prosecuting abuse cases,

But you better have evidence before you ruin somebody's life.

[blueinredohio]

8. Sadly sometimes it happens that way.

You're accused with no evidence just accusations then you have to try to prove you didn't do it.

[moonshinegnomie]

7. they wont have to pay a dime,the city will

that needs to change. cops and prosecutors need to start paying personally for their bad actions.