By Jeremy D. Wells
Carter County Times
A Carter County jury heard six days of evidence from law enforcement, school administrators and personnel, and the alleged victim and her family before returning a verdict on Tuesday, March 3 finding former West Carter and Paul Blazer special education teacher Harlee Estepp not guilty on all three charges against him, including two counts of first degree sexual abuse and one count of unlawful use of electronic means to induce a minor to engage in sexual activities.
The verdict marks the end of a tumultuous five years for both the accused and the alleged victim since the allegations first surfaced in the summer between the alleged victim’s freshman and sophomore years of high school.
According to the story presented by the alleged victim and her mother, the family was set up at the Haldeman Volunteer Fire Department when Estepp allegedly sent a text message to the minor. The mother saw the message pop up on the unattended phone, displaying the name Harlee according to the mother’s testimony. The alleged victim said it should have come up as “H” but that when the mother – who had her daughter’s passcode – opened the phone she would have been able to see the full first name. That name was the tipoff for the mother, who didn’t believe her daughter’s claim that it was someone else messaging her because of the unique spelling of Estepp’s first name. After discussing the content of the text with her husband, which they read as a request for nude images from the minor without explicitly stating such, the alleged victim’s stepfather suggested calling the police.
During the course of those initial police interviews and the subsequent investigation, the alleged victim denied any wrongdoing by Estepp. The mother of the alleged victim claimed that her child expressed concern about the teacher getting in trouble, a sentiment that the alleged victim echoed during her testimony. The alleged victim, now a freshman at UK, said that over the time that has elapsed since the initial investigation, she’d come to understand how damaging Estepp’s alleged actions had been, and no longer felt the need to protect him. After discussing the incident with someone at a later date the incident was reported as required by law, prompting the second investigation, arrest, and trial.
Over the course of the trial the jury heard from Kentucky State Police detectives involved in the original investigation, as well as the second investigation about the evidence collected. While a number of photos and videos showed Estepp spending time with students, including the alleged victim, during weekly school field trips for special education students, known as CBI or community based instruction days, none of those videos or photos showed any of the allegations of inappropriate touching.
Likewise, the suggestive text message seen by the alleged victim’s mother was not preserved by the mother or the state police. The mother testified that after the initial investigation faltered, she deleted her screen shot or photo of the text message because it distressed her having it on her phone.
School administrators, including the principal at West Carter at the time of the alleged incident, testified about the CBI trips, including the need to document which students participated as student peer mentors or in related capacities. While the alleged victim could not be a peer mentor yet as a freshman, she was involved with the club that peer mentors are drawn from.
The director of transportation and maintenance for the school district also testified about the capabilities and limitations of the cameras employed on all buses used for such field trips, and reviewed footage from some of those trips with the court.
Clothing that the alleged victim said Estepp gave her to wear for him, Estepp’s lawyers argued, was actually old clothing that Estepp had brought into his classroom for instances when students had accidents and needed a change of clothing. Photos taken by the alleged victim in those items of clothing were shared by the alleged victim, but investigators did not find any evidence of those photos being shared to Estepp’s phone or any apps on his device that could have saved such evidence. Likewise, images from Snapchat that clearly showed communication between the alleged victim and Estepp were from a trivia game that Estepp played with individuals or the entire peer mentor group.
Estepp’s attorney, Sebastian Joy, admitted that his client did engage in a non-professional manner by chatting via social media, but that this did not amount to a crime – particularly as the law banning such communications had not been enacted yet at the time of the alleged incidents, while the prosecution alleged that Estepp engaged in a pattern of grooming, including those unprofessional communications, and according to the alleged victim expressed concerns about what could happen to him if people found out about his inappropriate relationship with a student.
Ultimately, the jury agreed that there was not sufficient evidence to convict Estepp, finding him not guilty on all three counts. The verdict elicited audible sobs from those in the courtroom, drawing an admonition from the judge to remember where they were.
Contact the writer at editor@cartercountytimes.com
