Posted on 06/27/2002 6:39:36 PM PDT by chance33_98
Fired driver candidate for board
A man who was acquitted of charges he had sex with a male student is running for the Randolph County School Board.
KEITH SALIBA STAFF WRITER
CUTHBERT — A former Randolph County school employee, fired in 1999 in response to charges that he had a sexual relationship with a 15-year-old male student, is running for the Randolph County School Board.
Lee Morris Jordan, then 37, was acquitted by a Eufaula, Ala., jury in June 2000 on charges of sodomy and enticing a child for immoral purposes, according to Third Circuit District Attorney Boyd Whigham, who tried the case.
The charges were brought after the Randolph-Clay High School student said he had sex with Jordan on more than one occasion in motels in Eufaula.
Jordan, who will challenge incumbent Henry Cook in the Aug. 20 primary, did not return several messages seeking comment that were left on his answering machine and with his wife Monday and Tuesday.
Although Jordan was found innocent, the Randolph County School Board fired the 17-year bus driver and bookkeeper because evidence indicated he had an improper relationship with the boy, said Randolph County School Superintendent Bobby Jenkins.
"Our investigation uncovered enough evidence to terminate him," Jenkins said.
The boy provided dates and described occasions in which he and Jordan allegedly had sex in at least two Eufaula motels, according to case interview summaries compiled by Capt. Sam Starling, then with the Cuthbert Police Department and the original investigating officer in the case.
Police also found a date book in the boy's room that contained Jordan's name as well as dates when the two were allegedly to meet, according to the summaries.
Registration records from at least one of the motels showed that Jordan had checked in on one of the dates provided by the boy, Starling said in a telephone interview on Tuesday.
One witness interviewed in the summaries said the boy told her he was in love with Jordan.
During the trial, the boy admitted that he and Jordan had a sexual relationship but his testimony was vague, Whigham said.
Although he would not second-guess the jury's decision, Whigham said the lack of convincing testimony by the victim likely prompted the jury to acquit Jordan.
"The jury determined that there was not enough evidence to convict beyond a reasonable doubt, and I'm satisfied with that," Whigham said. "But the victim was not a very good witness and was not very forthcoming in describing the relationship between he and the accused.
"It appeared from his testimony that the victim still had feelings for the defendant," Whigham said.
Still waiting for the Miami Herald story on Reno.
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