Quote:
Posted on Fri, Jan. 07, 2005
Student, 15, testifies against substitute
The girl said he lured her from Cheltenham High School to his home and made advances.
By Connie Langland
Inquirer Staff Writer
A 15-year-old Cheltenham High School student testified yesterday that a substitute teacher kissed and groped her in his apartment after he persuaded her to leave the school to pick up test papers.
Appearing calm, the girl told District Justice Loretta Leader that Herbert Lee Mitchell, 45, did not threaten or coerce her and that she left the school on her own.
"I thought I could trust him. He was a substitute teacher, he was older," said the student, whose name The Inquirer is withholding.
Mitchell returned her to campus, she said in the Elkins Park courtroom, after asking her to keep the visit to his apartment "a secret."
Mitchell, of the 1700 block of Mohican Street in the West Oak Lane section of Philadelphia, was held over for trial on multiple charges, including indecent assault and endangering the welfare of a child.
He remains in the Montgomery County jail in lieu of $100,000 cash bond.
Assistant District Attorney Brian Kent described Mitchell as a flight risk because of a criminal record that included two arrests for assault, one in 1999 in Maryland and one in 1989 in Washington, and a domestic violence conviction in Virginia.
Defense attorney Paul Peters 3d said his client was innocent and would offer his version of events at trial.
Mitchell's previous criminal offenses did not surface in a criminal background check and a child abuse clearance conducted by the Cheltenham district when he applied for work as a substitute teacher in the fall.
According to high school principal Elliott Lewis, Mitchell worked a total of six days in the district in November and December; his last day of work was Dec. 20, when he allegedly lured the student off campus.
Cheltenham Superintendent Chris McGinley said Mitchell had falsified information about his criminal history. Kent said Mitchell gave a false birth date and lied about his criminal past to authorities.
McGinley said the district planned to tighten its procedures related to background checks and to inquire whether the FBI could run nationwide record checks on applicants.
The student testified that Mitchell first approached her and a friend after a midmorning social studies class. She also testified that after trying to avoid him early that afternoon, she left the building with him at the main entrance.
"He nodded at me and I just followed," she said.
Peters sought to have one charge - luring a child into a vehicle - dismissed. The student "voluntarily got into the car... . She could have screamed, she could have run away," he argued.
But Leader held Mitchell on that charge too.
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Yeah...someone dropped the ball on this. To be a teacher in my school, you need state and federal clearence along with a whole lot of other crap. but
ANYONE can be a sub.
We have been getting some bad publicity lately.
Just this tuesday, a woman was rapped in Philadelphia and dumped on the track of the middle school.
A few years ago, a gym teacher was fired for selling drugs. Seems he was doing it for YEARS.
Just after that, a wife-beating teacher was fired and jailed for setting his house on fire.
And all I have to say is.... CHS! GOLD AND BLUE!!! *jumps around with pompoms*