Outraged judge acquits gay HS principal, blasts prosecution and police

Padraig18

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Thu Jul-08-04 06:56 AM
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Outraged judge acquits gay HS principal, blasts prosecution and police

Edited on Thu Jul-08-04 07:05 AM by Padraig18

Outraged judge acquits gay HS principal, blasts prosecution and police

Douglas County Republican
Arcola, IL
July 8th, 2004

CHARLESTON--- At the close of a two-day bench trial, a Coles County circuit judge acquitted former Mattoon High School principal Edward Kilday of all charges relating to an alleged 2001 sexual assault on a then 16 year-old male student at the school. In his ruling, Judge Gary Jacobs fired verbal salvos at both the police and states' attorney.

"This is a case that should never have seen the light of day within our court system", Jacobs said. "The only credible evidence presented here at trial proved that Dr. Kilday was an upstanding, caring and respected educator who happens to be gay, neither of which is a crime in Illinois", Jacobs said.

Kilday, 49 of LaSalle, was charged in May 2003 with two counts of official misconduct, one count of aggravated sexual battery on a child and one count of obstruction of justice. He plead guilty last month to the misdemeanor misconduct charge, admitting he had used the computer in his office to visit pornographic websites. At that time, he dropped his demand for a jury trial, opting instead for a trial before a judge.

In finding Kilday not guilty on all the remaining charges, Jacobs took sharp exception to the police and prosecution's handling of the case. "Because of the critical importance we as a society rightly place upon the protection of our children, allegations of this nature must be taken seriously, but both the States' Attorney's office and the Mattoon police department failed miserably in their duty to properly investigate these allegations; it never occurred to any of you at any point that the defendant might not be guilty, or that the victim might be lying", Jacobs said. "Your own witnesses swore under oath that the victim was, at best, not credible and at worst, a pathological liar. He himself admitted that he gave four different versions of the alleged assault to the police, not one of which was in any way consistent with any of the other three".

"In his 27 years as a teacher and administrator, Dr. Kilday has achieved a reputation as kind, dedicated and respected educator who has time and again been recognized as outstanding by both his peers and students, and the violence you have done to his life and his character can only be described as extreme, and your actions as grossly negligent and reckless. I can only hope that this court's verdict will, in some small measure, begin to repair the damage you have done".

Had he been convicted on the most serious charges against him, Kilday would have received a mandatory minimum prison sentence of six to twenty-five years, a sentence that could have been extended to as long as seventy-five years.

When asked to comment on the judge's ruling, Kilday's attorney said "We are elated. Ed has steadfastly maintained his innocence, and he cooperated fully with the police in this investigation. Judge Jacobs saw this case for what it was--- a witch hunt. The police department saw this as case as 'he's gay, so he's guilty' from day one and ignored any evidence of Ed's innocence, including the three lie-detector examinations he passed conclusively". Both the States Attorney's office and the Mattoon police declined to comment, due to the 'possibility of pending litigation'.

Note to Moderators: The newspaper is not available online, and I have verbal permission from the publisher to use this material. Any typographical errors are mine.

---Padraig18