Timberlane teacher's criminal trial scheduled
Jun. 30—BRENTWOOD — A sexual assault trial involving former Timberlane Regional High School teacher David Russell is newly scheduled for April 2023.
If a settlement is not reached before then, Russell's trial will take place 16 months after his classroom removal and arrest.
Court records show he was arrested in December 2021 and indicted the following March for two counts of felonious sexual assault and five counts of simple assault.
It is alleged that he touched a female student inappropriately twice during the same day in November 2021, once by running a hand down her back and buttock area, then grabbing her hips.
The girl was 15 at the time but has since turned 16.
Russell, 63, was at one time licensed to teach math and physical education in Massachusetts and New Hampshire, however, the New Hampshire Department of Education was quick to suspend his credential once criminal charges were brought.
Assault allegations have also been made by former students in North Andover Public Schools, where Russell taught for 23 years, according to dozens of interviews by The Eagle-Tribune and a review of records.
Criminal charges were never brought against him in Massachusetts.
A Plaistow police officer who inquired with North Andover officials explained in a report of his own, "...most of the 'creepy' things which made students uncomfortable were not criminal but was conduct unbecoming."
North Andover Superintendent Gregg Gillian said Russell was hired in 1993 and taught health for a year, then science until 1996, math from 1996 to 2009, and physical education from 2009 to 2016. He is said to have retired in Aug. 2016.
Records show that Russell let his Massachusetts teaching license expire before becoming licensed to teach in New Hampshire in 2019.
He worked briefly in the Nashua School District — for a single academic year — before losing his job over accusations of touching, according to Dana O'Gara, the Human Resources Director at Timberlane and formerly Nashua.
A Plaistow police report reads in part, "O'Gara states that she has now called Nashua School District which states that Russell was let go due to touching young female students and thinking it was OK to give them therapeutic massages."
Russell remains free on bail, but he has been ordered by a judge not to have contact with the Timberlane student involved in the ongoing court case.
He is not allowed unsupervised contact with anyone under the age of 18.
