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The Utah Supreme Court ruled Friday that a teacher acquitted of sexually abusing a junior high student is entitled to money from the Salt Lake City School District to pay for legal fees for her defense.
In its opinion, the high court wrote that Shelly Acor, a former teacher acquitted in 2007 of having sex with a Northwest Middle School student over a six-year period, should be reimbursed by the school district under a law that allows public officials to have legal expenses paid by their government employers when they are cleared of wrongdoing on the job.
The ruling could have broader implications for not just teachers, but all public employees who have shelled out their own money to defend themselves against allegations, only to be acquitted of the charges, said Salt Lake City attorney Kenneth Brown, who represents Acor.
"It has application to every public official, not only Shelly," Brown said Friday. "It is those who are facing charges of misusing public funds and a whole host of people — they could have the benefit and right to seek reimbursement [from the government entity that employed them] if they are successfully acquitted."
He declined to disclose how much Acor spent fighting the second-degree felony sexual abuse of a child charges filed in June 2006 but said it will be more than $100,000.
Acor was accused of abusing a seventh-grade girl during the 1994-95 school year at school and in a public park. The student alleged the relationship continued through the middle of her senior year.
It wasn't until December 2005 that the student reported the alleged relationship. The student told an associate superintendent that Acor, her seventh-grade English teacher, advocated for better grades for the student from other teachers at the school in exchange for sexual favors, according to court documents.
The student said she would stay in Acor's classroom when she "ran into trouble with other teachers or family members," and that she and Acor would have sex during Acor's teacher-prep period, court documents state.
Acor admitted to the superintendent that she had an inappropriate relationship with the girl and said she had spoken with ecclesiastical authorities and a therapist about the relationship.
For this reason, The Tribune is not naming the girl.
The interview with the superintendent was excluded from trial evidence, however, along with a journal in which Acor wrote she was "so in love" with the student, court documents state. The journal was determined to have been seized illegally by police.
She resigned from her job and had her teaching license revoked prior to the start of the trial. A jury acquitted Acor after a three-day trial, and she sued the school district for legal fees.
The district argued she shouldn't receive reimbursement because Acor admitted to the crimes in her interview with the superintendent, even though a jury acquitted her, court documents state. The district also argued Acor's sexual misconduct was not a job duty, and therefore she should have been ineligible for compensation because she was defending herself on allegations that served her personal interests, according to court documents.
"The Reimbursement Statute leaves no room for a court to question the propriety of an acquittal — much less an employee's worthiness for reimbursement on the basis of an unspecified 'inappropriate' relationship," Justice Thomas R. Lee wrote for the high court. "The district's strongly held and presumably sincere belief in Acor's guilt cannot defeat her right to reimbursement under the statute."
The Supreme Court remanded the case back to 3rd District Judge Tyrone Medley, who will determine an amount to award Acor for her attorney's fees.
Attorneys for the Salt Lake City School District could not immediately comment on the opinion Friday afternoon. District spokesman Jason Olsen said administrators had not had a chance to review the ruling.
The decision could also affect other defendants who have been acquitted.
Jose Fanjul, a former West High history teacher, in 2009 was found not guilty of having sex with a 16-year-old girl. Fanjul reached a settlement with the district to pay legal fees, said Brown, who represented Fanjul in the case.
A 3rd District judge in December overturned the conviction of Andrea Billingsley, a former teacher's aide at West Jordan Middle School, saying aspects of her trial were improper. Her case, stemming from charges that she sexually abused two teenage boys, is pending for a retrial. If acquitted, she could potentially sue for legal fees as well.
Brown said such cases should allow for legal fee reimbursement because of their complexity and expense.
"These cases are difficult to defend," he said. "They're emotionally charged."