LEESBURG, Va. (AP) — The attorney for a school system administrator accused of perjuring himself during a high-profile inquiry into two school-based sexual assaults told jurors Tuesday that her client is “the fall guy” for a series of administrative mistakes.
The perjury prosecution against Loudoun County Public Schools spokeswoman Wayde Byard is the first to go to trial as a consequence of a special grand jury probe initiated by Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin and commissioned by Republican Attorney General Jason Miyares, according to ABC News.
In 2021, the grand jury investigated the school system’s handling of two sexual assaults at two distinct high schools. The attacks were a big issue in that year’s governor race, partly because the student who perpetrated the assaults was permitted to move to another school after the first incident, and partly because the boy was wearing a skirt when he committed the first attack in a school restroom. The county was contemplating changing its policy to enable transgender children to use the toilet of their choosing at the time.
According to Yahoo News, Byard is widely known in the county as the school system’s experienced spokesman, and he has cult status among youngsters as the voice that delivers the good news when school is canceled due to snow.
During her opening statement on Tuesday, defense lawyer Jennifer Leffler argued Byard’s celebrity worked against him in the grand jury inquiry, which was politically heated and looking for someone to blame.
“He’s the face of Loudoun County Public Schools,” she says of Byard. “He’s the fallen man. That is why we are here.”
According to prosecutor Theo Stamos, the evidence reveals that Byard lied to the special grand jury when he said he was unaware of the first sexual assault complaint when it occurred at Stone Bridge High School in May 2021, according to wtop news. Byard told the grand jury that he learned about the accusations of unwanted sexual contact after the second incident at Broad Run High School in October 2021.
Both parties claim there are no emails or documentation proving Byard was specifically told of the alleged assault in May. However, Stamos stated that Byard was involved in the general response to the charges. And she said that the school principal, Tim Flynn, informed him of the alleged assault in a phone conversation the day it occurred.
On Tuesday, Flynn testified for the prosecution for the first time. He said he told Byard about everything that happened, including the alleged attack and the violent scene that followed, in which he ordered the girl’s father to be removed from the premises when he reacted aggressively.
“He needs all of the information so he can do his job,” Flynn said of Byard.
On the afternoon of the incident, Byard assisted in the creation of a message for Stone Bridge parents that referenced just the disturbance involving the girl’s father and not the sexual assault claim itself.
Flynn, on the other hand, contradicted his prior testimony on numerous important parts of what happened that day under cross-examination. He offered contradictory answers when asked whether an online meeting he had with the superintendent took place in the afternoon or evening. He also failed to explain why he first referred to the accusation as an “attempted rape” when the girl said she had been raped.
The attack would support detractors’ claims that biological boys shouldn’t use girls’ restrooms, according to U.S. News. Critics of the school system contend that Byard and other administrators hid the truth about the assault on purpose because the school board was considering a new rule allowing transgender students to use the restroom of their choice.
Others, on the other hand, claim that the circumstances of what happened at Stone Bridge were not immediately obvious. At first, police and school administration was skeptical of the claim since there was proof that the boy and girl had previously met consensually for sex in the girls’ lavatory.
In his evidence before the special grand jury, Byard described the event as a “boy-girl incident that went sideways,” according to Leffler.
The former superintendent of the school system is set to stand trial later this year on allegations levied by a special grand jury.
The youngster was convicted of both crimes and ordered in juvenile court last year to a confined, residential treatment facility until he reaches the age of 18.
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