At trial, former Cohasset student faces ex-teacher she accuses of sexually assaulting her
QUINCY – A former Cohasset student who accused middle school teacher Jeffrey Knight of inappropriately touching her took the stand in his jury trial in Quincy District Court this week.
Knight faces one charge each of indecent assault and battery on a child younger than 14, indecent assault and battery on a child older than 14 and assault and battery. Not guilty pleas were entered on his behalf at his arraignment three years ago.
The accuser, who was 14 years old at the time, told Cohasset Middle School administrators in February 2018 about her allegations. Instead of notifying the state Department of Children and Families as required by law, administrators, including former Principal Carolyn Connolly, conducted their own investigation and waited months before telling police. The student was put back in class with Knight, where she said she was sexually abused again.
The Patriot Ledger does not name alleged victims of sexual assault.
The accuser told the jury that Knight routinely pressed himself into her, under the guise of helping her, as she worked on projects in his science, technology, engineering and math class.
"It only ever happened to me," the former student testified.
She said she told a friend at the time "how dirty (she) felt after."
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When she met with Connolly, the student said the principal offered to take her out of Knight's class. The student said she would go back as long as Knight was told to stop touching her. The student said she didn't know better than to not go back at the time.
The student said the abuse started when she was 13 years old.
"I was embarrassed," she said during a redirect examination by prosecutors. "I felt like it was something I was doing."
Defense attorneys for Knight tried to point out where the accuser's testimony in court differed from previous statements.
A taped interview from Cohasset police detectives' initial investigation was played in court. In the interview, Knight said he would never come up from behind a student and said he didn't recall any out-of-the-ordinary interaction with his accuser.
Cohasset Detective Lt. Michael Lopes also took the stand, and said Knight was the only school employee who cooperated with their investigation. Connolly, former Assistant Principal Kerri Sandler and others refused to speak with police, Lopes said.
Once police were informed about the allegations in May 2018, they filed a report known as a 51A with the state Department of Children and Families, something administrators failed to do.
Judge Mark Coven told Knight's defense lawyers, who are planning to call school administrators as witnesses, that the administrators could be open to prosecution for failing to file a report. The Norfolk County district attorney's office has not charged any administrator for failing to file, an offense that carries a $1,000 fine.
Cohasset Public Schools paid an outside investigator $6,750 to examine how the school handled the matter, but never publicly released the report. The Patriot Ledger received a heavily redacted copy after one of several exhaustive public records battles with the town's school system.
A grand jury declined to indict Knight on the charges in this case. An indictment would have moved his case into Superior Court, where more serious crimes are tried.
The case is one of two currently open against Knight after allegations brought by former students. He was indicted on assault charges in a second, similar case brought by a different accuser.
Knight's Quincy District Court trial is expected to wrap up this week.
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Joe Difazio can be reached at jdifazio@patriotledger.com. Follow him on Twitter @jldifazio.
This article originally appeared on The Patriot Ledger: Former Cohasset teacher Jeffrey Knight faces accuser in court
