Trial date set in Bellingham Public Schools administrators’ failure to report sex crime case

Three Bellingham Public Schools administrators will face trial in mid-December for allegedly failing to report a high school student’s sexual assaults brought to their attention.

The administrators — Jeremy Gilbert Louzao, Maude Chimere Hackney and Meghan V. Dunham — were each criminally cited Dec. 7, 2022, in Whatcom County District Court with one count of failure to report, a gross misdemeanor. The crime is punishable by up to one year in jail and a $5,000 fine.

Now, the three will stand trial nearly a year to the day.

At a court hearing Friday afternoon, Sept. 1, Whatcom County District Court Commissioner Tony Parise formally scheduled the administrators’ trial for Dec. 11.

Jury selection and pretrial motions are expected to be handled Dec. 11, while opening statements in the trial will likely begin Dec. 12.

A status hearing, where the attorneys and court will be expected to confirm they’re ready for trial, is scheduled for Dec. 7.

All three have pleaded not guilty in the case. The school district is providing legal defense for the three administrators.

The school district has said it continues to support the administrators, that it believes they acted in good faith and that it does not believe any of the three violated any policies.

“At no time have we determined the employees violated district policy,” Bellingham Public Schools spokesperson Jackie Brawley said in an Aug. 18 email to The Herald.

“Our district continues to be supportive of these three staff as we believe they acted in good faith and did not violate any reporting obligations. We are confident that they will be able to effectively return to their roles and contribute to supporting students and staff,” Brawley said in her email.

Background

The jury trial for the three administrators was initially expected to begin Monday, Aug. 28, but was delayed last week due to last-minute evidence received by defense and an uncooperative key witness. Parise, the court commissioner, ultimately pushed the trial until the end of the year following an hour-long court hearing on Aug. 25.

All three of the Bellingham Public Schools administrators are mandatory reporters and are required by state law to report any suspected abuse or neglect of a child to law enforcement or to the Washington State Department of Children, Youth & Families.

The prosecution is alleging that none of the three administrators reported a female Squalicum High School student’s sexual assaults, which were brought to their attention in mid-January 2022, to law enforcement or the state child protective services agency.

The three were then issued criminal citations in early December 2022, The Bellingham Herald previously reported.

At the time the criminal citations were issued, Louzao and Dunham were serving as assistant principals at Squalicum High School, while Hackney was an assistant principal at Bellingham High School.

All three were reassigned in early January to the school district’s Department of Teaching and Learning. They were also included among the list of 60 administrative staff members the district recommended to the school board for employment for the 2023-24 school year.

The school board approved that list at its May 18 meeting.

Louzao, Dunham and Hackney were reinstated to their roles as assistant high school principals in late June. Louzao and Dunham will return to Squalicum High School, while Hackney will return to Bellingham High School for the upcoming school year.

The district made the decision to return the administrators to their previous roles at the end of the 2022-23 school year, Brawley previously told The Herald.

When asked whether an internal administrative investigation was conducted into the three administrators actions, and if so, details regarding that investigation, Brawley said that when the allegations against the district were brought forward in spring 2022, the district’s human resources department gathered and examined facts.

After the criminal citations were issued to the administrators in December, Brawley said the district continued to gather and analyze information.

When asked whether any of the three administrators have received any discipline for their alleged failures to report the student’s sexual assaults, Brawley said, “We have not determined that they broke any school district policy, and they have thus not received discipline. However, we have devoted significant attention to ensuring that all of our staff, including these three, have received recent training into mandatory reporting obligations.”

Federal lawsuit, criminal cases

The former Squalicum High School female student who has accused the district of mishandling her sexual assault reports filed a federal civil rights lawsuit Dec. 7 against Bellingham Public Schools. The student, who has since withdrawn from the high school and began attending another school, accused the district in her lawsuit of violating her federal Title IX rights, failing its duty to protect and care for her and neglecting its duties to report the sexual assaults to law enforcement.

She previously sought $1 million in damages from the district before filing the federal lawsuit.

The district denied it mishandled the student’s reports in its January response to the lawsuit. The district said it took reasonable steps to stop the reported harassment, that the assault allegations contained in the student’s lawsuit were not reported to the administrators and that the conduct that was reported to them was not considered abuse or neglect under state law.

The federal lawsuit is pending, federal court records show.

The male student accused of sexually assaulting the female student was sentenced July 19 in Whatcom County Juvenile Court to 18-20 weeks in the custody of the state Juvenile Rehabilitation Administration. (The county’s juvenile court is a division of Whatcom County Superior Court).

The boy previously pleaded guilty May 17 to amended charges of two counts of fourth-degree assault with sexual motivation. He also resolved two unrelated criminal cases at the time.

Detective fired

Adam (Bo) S. McGinty, the lead Bellingham Police Department detective who spent more than year investigating the female student’s sexual assault allegations and the school administrators’ alleged failure to report the assaults, himself became the subject of an internal administrative investigation and a criminal investigation in mid-May.

McGinty is alleged to have misused public funds and has been placed on a dishonest officers list, The Herald previously reported.

Bellingham Police Chief Rebecca Mertzig fired McGinty, effective immediately, on Friday, Aug. 18.

The criminal investigation into McGinty is ongoing, according to Mount Vernon Police Department Lt. Mike Moore. The Mount Vernon Police Department is conducting the criminal investigation into McGinty.

The issues surrounding McGinty have led to multiple delays in the administrators’ court case, The Herald has reported.