A man who was a substitute teacher and recreation center program leader has been accused of sex abuse by a 15-year-old boy he invited to his home, the Baltimore Sun reports.
Leroy Campbell, 59, was a substitute teacher for Baltimore City Public Schools and also worked part-time at the James McHenry Recreation Center. He’s facing sex abuse charges because the boy said Mr Campbell offered him $20 to perform a sex act.
Mr Campbell was charged with sexual solicitation of a minor and a fourth-degree sex offense. He adamantly denies the accusations.
“He is presumed innocent. He expects to be exonerated at the end of the trial process,” the paper quoted his attorney, Jessica L Colwell, as saying in an email.
We agree with the presumption of innocence. In 2012, the Birmingham Mail in England ran a story about a teacher, Patricia Isabella Davies, who was charged with simulating a sex act with a broom while teaching students about static electricity.
The judge said, “There had been a number of complaints from pupils who had apparently been asked to describe (what happened) in letters, and those statements were essentially consistent. However, there was a considerable amount of evidence they might not have accurately described what had happened. There was also the classroom register, which recorded that two of the pupils who made statements were not present on that day. … (There was) some possibility there may have been some sort of conspiracy by the pupils to fabricate the incident.”
Although we can say nothing about Mr Campbell’s guilt or innocence in this case, stories like the one from England remind us that Mr Campbell is innocent until proven guilty.
