Wilmjax News

DURHAM - Interim District Attorney Jim Hardin has asked the State Bureau of Investigation to determine whether anyone should be prosecuted as a result of the Duke lacrosse case.

The request came during the past several days, but no decision had been made late Wednesday about whether to proceed.

“We’re reviewing the request at this point,” said Noelle Talley, a spokeswoman for the state Attorney General’s Office.

Hardin, appointed by Gov. Mike Easley to fill in as Durham district attorney after Mike Nifong was forced from office, declined to comment on the matter.

The Duke lacrosse case, which began with an escort service dancer’s allegations of gang-rape in 2006, ended on the criminal side last week when Judge W. Osmond Smith III found Nifong in contempt of court and sentenced him to a day in jail.

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CHARLOTTE, N.C. — In the courtroom, Jerry Seale did not say a word about the teacher to student sex charges. On the way out of the courthouse however, Seale blasted his accuser and a member of her family.

“The only comment I have is that I was held against my will in the bathroom by one of her family members,” said Seale.

Seale faces four felony sex-offense charges stemming from accusations by a former student. We witnessed as Seale exited a courthouse bathroom and a man shouted, “I’m just asking.”

“I could not understand,” Seale said.

The former teacher may have not understood what the man was asking but said he’ll press charges because the man held the bathroom door.

“The only thing I want to say to the student is I’m sorry she did this to me,” he added.

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A 62-year-old teacher and coach was arrested Tuesday on charges involving sex with a 16-year-old student.

Jerry Peter Seale resigned from Derita Alternative School on Friday. He left his volunteer coaching job at Livingstone College in Salisbury last month.

Seale, who lives in Rock Hill, is charged with four counts of felony sex offense involving a student. He was in the Mecklenburg County jail on a $40,000 bond Tuesday.

Sgt. Darrell Price said police had been investigating Seale since July 22, when the 16-year-old and her mother contacted police. He said Seale and the teen, a Derita student, had a sexual relationship.

Because of the investigation, Seale had been suspended and has not taught this school year, a Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools spokeswoman said. Last year, he taught biology at the alternative school in northeast Charlotte. Seale also has taught special education at Providence High, Olympic High and Wilson Middle schools in the past, the spokeswoman said.

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CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Police have charged former Charlotte-Mecklenburg teacher on four counts of felony sex offense.

Jerry Seale is accused of having sex with one of his students at Derita Alternative School. He was a biology teacher there. He resigned from that position last Friday.

Seale faced a judge on Wednesday afternoon.

Seale was arrested after a 16-year-old student of his told detectives that the 62-year-old had sex with her four times between February and July.

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The baby kept crying, so Kohumna Hoyle shook him. Then he dropped him on a chair.

But he didn’t admit it when Winston-Salem police showed up at his door March 9 last year, even after he had called 911 and had a dispatcher walk him through the steps of doing CPR on his 2-month-old son, Raynell.

Detectives got closer to the truth only after confronting Hoyle with the results of Raynell’s autopsy, Detective Stan Nieves testified yesterday during Hoyle’s sentencing hearing in Forsyth Superior Court.

The autopsy showed that Raynell’s arms and leg were broken and that he had bruises on the back of his head from the blow that killed him. All 12 ribs were broken.

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