Criminal Charge Against Loudoun County Superintendent Dropped After Victim Is Paid Off

Special prosecutors representing Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares on Thursday moved to drop the criminal case against Loudoun County Public Schools’ former superintendent, Scott Ziegler, who was fired over a rape coverup.

Ziegler was already convicted by a jury in the case, but a judge overturned the conviction on a technicality, saying that although there was “ample evidence” to support the charge, it would have to be retried. Miyares’ office said it will no longer seek that retrial after LCPS settled a civil lawsuit with a teacher whose testimony was key in the case.

In October 2021, The Daily Wire reported that at a school board meeting over a proposed transgender policy, Ziegler dismissed concerns about safety by stating that no sexual assaults had ever occurred in Loudoun’s bathrooms, despite knowing that a boy wearing a skirt and blouse allegedly raped a ninth-grader in a girls bathroom just weeks prior. LCPS also filed false paperwork with the state concealing the incident. The policy was passed and the boy remained in the school system, despite the police charging him with rape. That allowed him to sexually assault a second girl in October. He was convicted on both counts.

A special grand jury was convened to look into Loudoun’s handling of sexual abuse, and it resulted in a felony perjury charge against the school’s then-spokesman, and two misdemeanors against Ziegler. One was for the false statement at the school board meeting, and the other was for allegedly firing a teacher, Erin Brooks, in retaliation for her speaking to the grand jury.

In September 2023, Ziegler was convicted of the latter charge, which carried a penalty of up to a year in jail. He showed up to his trial wearing nail polish and an earring. Prosecutors then dropped the other charge, explaining that they were satisfied that he was now a convicted criminal and there was no need for the time and expense of a second trial. But that logic no longer held when the judge overturned the conviction on a technicality. Judge Douglas Fleming wrote that there was “ample evidence” to support Ziegler’s conviction in the Brooks case, but that it would have to be retried.

In June 2022, Brooks also brought a civil lawsuit seeking money over the same issue, suing LCPS and a principal. It settled last November, not long before the criminal retrial, which was set to take place next month. Miyares’ motion to close the case said “Since this Court’s ruling setting aside the earlier conviction, the complaining witness has resolved her civil suit against the defendant and the Loudoun County Public Schools. The complaining witness is grateful to the Office of the Attorney General for its efforts in obtaining the initial conviction, but now desires to put this entire matter behind her.” Brooks’ cooperation would have been key to securing another criminal conviction.

LCPS has a history of paying people who allege that they have been wronged by its employees in exchange for both not pursuing legal action and their silence. The Daily Wire is currently suing the district for its payouts to resolve allegations of wrongdoing against it, including the contracts with language such as secrecy clauses. LCPS has acknowledged that it is hiding at least 10 settlements since May 2023.

The Loudoun County Public Schools rapist / Social media screenshot

Those include a settlement with the second girl assaulted by the rapist, which used an out-of-district court, the Alexandria Circuit Court, to conceal the deal and place the entire case under seal. In the FOIA lawsuit in Loudoun court, LCPS has refused to show even that judge a copy of the settlement, or disclose its dollar amount. Her family said after the grand jury released its fact-finding report — leading to Ziegler’s firing — that “since our daughter was assaulted, not one member of the school board, LCPS administration, or even our local high school leadership has reached out to check on how she is doing, lend any type of support or even apologize for what we are going through as a family. That alone speaks volumes to what we have endured throughout this ordeal.”

The school system’s indulgence in controversial politics has also been expensive for taxpayers — or its insurance company — through significant bills for the time of outside lawyers. LCPS responded to a FOIA request from The Daily Wire for legal bills with totals showing nearly $2 million to outside attorneys between the June 2021 rape and 2023. Missing were any payments to Ziegler’s attorneys, and LCPS ignored FOIA appeals questioning its completeness. Ziegler’s attorneys later filed a lawsuit against LCPS saying it had refused to pay his bills, seemingly suggesting that Ziegler was on his own. Spokesman Dan Adams did not answer questions about the Brooks settlement for this story, which also asked its current position on whether Ziegler had to pay his own legal bills or not.

The former spokesman facing the felony perjury charge was acquitted after a parade of LCPS officials testified that they could not recall basic details of what had transpired.

Out of all of LCPS’ 15,000 teachers, Brooks was singled out for firing by Ziegler at a school board meeting in June 2022, prosecutors said. Ziegler told board members he fired Brooks for giving private information to a conservative activist, and for giving private information to the grand jury, school board member John Beatty testified. Ziegler’s alleged claim that Brooks had given information to a conservative activist turned out to be false, and it would be illegal to punish her for telling the truth to a jury she’d been subpoenaed by, prosecutors argued.

At trial, school board member Brenda Sheridan, a Democrat who was chair during the rape coverup, was asked under oath about Ziegler’s closed-door statements that amounted to a confession. She did not deny Beatty’s version, but instead refused to answer.