Elizabethtown Teacher's Aide Charged With Sexual Abuse of 4 Year Old Child
There are reports of yet another sad case of child sexual abuse by an adult employed in a position of authority with children. This has been an unfortunate common theme since we began blogging about child injuries and child safety here on Kentucky Injury Lawyer Blog.
The News-Enterprise of Hardin County, Kentucky is reporting that a Radcliff elementary school instructional aide was arrested Thursday morning and charged with sexual abuse of a 4-year-old girl.
59 year-old Gary Lou Martin of Elizabethtown, Kentucky was charged with two counts of first-degree sodomy and two counts of first-degree sexual abuse, with all four counts enhanced to a greater felony as a result of the age of the child victim.
According to the report, Mr. Martin admitted sexual contact with the girl to either police or prosecutors--admitting to fondling her on two occasions while she sat on his lap playing a video game.
A spokesperson for the Elizabethtown Police Department said the incidents took place at Mr. Martin’s home on North Mantle Avenue in Elizabethtown.
According to a written statement from Hardin County Schools, Martin was hired in August 2004 as an instructional aide at Parkway Elementary School in Radcliff, Kentucky in Hardin County.
Martin reportedly works with kindergarten and/or preschool-aged children. Hardin County Schools is reportedly conducting an internal investigation.
The news report states that Mr. Martin "remains employed by the school system, but the statement [from HCS] says he will not be in contact with students."
The complete statement from HCS is as follows:
"This is a confidential personnel matter that is currently under investigation by multiple agencies, including our school district. Because of privacy laws we cannot release complete details of our actions to this point, but we can assure the entire community that we have already taken significant and effective steps to deal appropriately with this situation. As always, our first priority is to protect students. We have therefore removed the individual from all contact with students, an action we take in any situation where there is a legitimate concern that the safety of students could be compromised. The individual remains an employee of the school."
Mr. Martin was arraigned in Hardin District Court Thursday morning and pleaded not guilty. He’s being held at the Hardin County Detention Center on $75,000 bond. He’s due back in court Sept. 30 for a probable cause hearing.
Commentary by Kentucky lawyer Shawn Cantley, who represents injured children and is a frequent commentator on child safety issues:
Many times, so-called "internal investigations" are merely attempts to cover the butts of school officials who may have dropped the ball. It's obviously to early to say that's going to happen here, and I certainly hope that's not the case in this situation.
However, in my experience, people don't just become pedophiles at 59 years of age. There may be information in this person's past that a proper background check would have revealed. If that's the case, school officials would certainly have some explaining to do. Also, I'm a little troubled by the HCS's statement that this guy remains employed by the school. He should not be allowed anywhere within mile of that school. Hopefully, he's on administrative leave at the very least--especially if the reports are accurate that he admitted to the sexual abuse of this little girl.
