Camden instructor has confronted 4 costs of violating a safety order in a yr and a half
An English instructor at Camden Hills Regional Excessive College was charged on Tuesday for the fourth time inside the final yr and a half for violating two former companions’ no-contact orders and is at the moment on administrative depart from the varsity.
On Wednesday, Maine District Courtroom Decide Eric Walker ordered the instructor, Todd Williams, 55, of Camden, to be held with out bail as he faces what the choose described as a “flurry of legal circumstances” in Knox and Waldo counties. The district legal professional is asserting that Williams violated a safety from abuse order thrice since July, along with violating his circumstances of launch twice. Williams stays on the Waldo County Jail in Belfast.
Police arrested Williams on Aug. 12 for allegedly calling a girl who had taken out a safety from abuse order towards him, which prohibited him from contacting her.
After being launched on bail after that arrest, Williams continued to comply with the lady at a Camden operating occasion on Sept. 8, apparently attempting to get her to register him for the race, although she stored attempting to get away from him, stated Rosemarie Guimaraes, Waldo County assistant district legal professional. The lady known as 911, however Williams adopted her to her automotive and stood exterior it.
Williams then known as the lady once more on Tuesday, regardless of the no-contact order nonetheless being in place, Guimaraes stated, prompting his most up-to-date arrest. The Bangor Every day Information doesn’t identify alleged victims with out their permission.
“The state finds that that is intentional, manipulative conduct on the defendant and may be very involved with the sufferer’s security,” she stated.
As well as, Williams was charged in February 2022 for violating a unique former accomplice’s no-contact order, based on court docket data, although that cost was in the end dismissed.
In an e-mail to highschool officers, the alleged sufferer within the present circumstances stated she fears Williams.
“It most likely goes with out saying that I proceed to really feel threatened and, on the threat of hyperbole, even terrorized by this man. Have been I the guardian of a younger lady at the highschool, I might most definitely wish to find out about this sample of conduct,” she wrote to the superintendent and a college board member on Aug. 28.
Williams’ legal professional, Darrick Banda, stated the allegations stem from the breakdown of a private relationship and don’t contain college students. Williams was employed by the Camden faculty district in 1997.
“Not one of the allegations towards Todd contain violence or inflicting anybody hurt. Nothing occurred on faculty grounds or concerned anybody related with the varsity. They definitely don’t contain youngsters or have actually something to do with Todd’s place at Camden Hills Regional Excessive College,” Banda stated.
Williams has pleaded not responsible to all the fees.
The BDN requested info from the varsity district about any self-discipline that Williams has confronted up to now, however there have been no obtainable data. Lecturers’ personnel data are confidential until the varsity board reaches a choice about self-discipline.
“I can’t talk about ongoing personnel issues, however I can verify that Mr. Williams has been on administrative depart because the starting of the varsity yr,” 5 City Group College District Superintendent Maria Libby stated.
The Camden highschool’s Fb web page posted an image of Williams with a big group of lecturers on Aug. 29, which was the day lecturers returned to highschool. Freshman orientation was Aug. 31, and the primary full day for college kids was Sept. 5.
The alleged sufferer, who’s a path runner, obtained a brief safety order on June 30 and an 18-month order on July 24, which prohibits Williams from contacting her; going to her house, faculty, enterprise or place of employment; attending an area path operating group’s runs or occasions; or “stalking or following” her.
In her request for defense, the lady advised the court docket Williams had been “verbally abusive and threatening” throughout their relationship and that he had been harassing and stalking her since she ended their relationship within the spring.
“After I would ask him to go away my house, he would additionally refuse. On at the least one occasion, he bodily prevented me from leaving the premises. He would additionally seem at my house and try to realize entry even once I had requested [him] to remain away,” she described in court docket data.
When she advised him in writing to cease contacting her, he continued to e-mail and textual content. When she advised him once more to cease, he then “made a number of makes an attempt to return to my house,” she advised the court docket.
So her legal professional despatched Williams a letter telling him to not contact the lady or her household. However Williams then messaged the lady’s mom and twice confirmed as much as the lady’s early morning path operating group, based on her request for the order.
The lady has requested the court docket to increase her no-contact order for 5 years. A choose has not but dominated on that Aug. 31 request.
Although the safety order prohibits Williams from having any contact with the alleged sufferer, he known as her on Aug. 12, based on court docket data. He stated his telephone unintentionally dialed her whereas he was operating a path in Camden Hills State Park. The decision was made on a day and time when Williams knew she normally runs on that path, nonetheless, based on the lady’s movement for an prolonged no-contact order.
Since his arrest on Aug. 12, he has continued to comply with her, the lady stated.
“Whereas in a relationship, path operating was one thing Plaintiff did, however Defendant didn’t do. Nevertheless, because the events separated, Defendant has been operating on trails he is aware of Plaintiff frequents on dates and occasions she is prone to be there,” court docket data state.
As an example, on Aug. 20, after Williams’ first arrest, he drove backwards and forwards by the lady as she was operating on a highway in Lincolnville to entry some trails. He then went onto the paths he knew she can be utilizing as a result of she adopted a constant operating schedule, based on court docket data.
He additionally signed as much as run a 100-mile race in October regardless of realizing she had already signed up and had been coaching for months to run it, her court docket data state. The back-and-forth race, alongside a slim, wooded path, requires individuals to run carefully previous one another many occasions over the course of a 24-hour interval, generally in the course of the evening.
Banda, Williams’ legal professional, stated each of Williams’ telephone calls to the lady had been inadvertent.
“One other allegation of contact occurred at a public occasion that the 2 occurred to be attending on the similar time. This incident was investigated by the police and so they decided on the time that no crime had occurred. That didn’t cease the DA’s Workplace from bringing the cost,” Banda wrote in an e-mail.
Williams additionally confronted allegations of not abiding by a no-contact order final yr. The opposite former accomplice, who beforehand labored as an English instructor at the highschool, obtained a brief no-contact order towards him in November 2021 and a two-year order in February 2022.
In her request for the order, the previous instructor described Williams’ conduct as controlling and erratic. He didn’t depart her alone when she requested him to, she described. At one level she barricaded herself in a bed room, pushing a desk towards the door, however he pushed by way of anyway, prompting her to retreat to the toilet.
“If he’s not pulled up brief and proven that he can’t break guidelines, he’s going to maintain doing it,” the lady stated.
Regardless of the no-contact order, he emailed her on Feb. 28, 2022, based on a replica of the e-mail, and was charged for doing so. Williams pleaded not responsible, and the district legal professional dismissed the case a yr later, based on court docket data.
For those who or somebody you realize is experiencing home violence and want to discuss with an advocate, name 866-834-4357, TRS 800-787-3224. This free, confidential service is out there 24/7 and is accessible from wherever in Maine.
