Cops lied, teacher's lawyer says

Attorney claims teen pressured to change his story

Chris Barge, Rocky Mountain News

Tuesday, February 6, 2007

FORT COLLINS - A 17-year-old boy told police he had a sexual encounter with his teacher only after officers lied by telling him there was an eyewitness, the teacher's lawyer said.

M. Trent Trani also said police lied when they told the boy Trani's client, Carrie McCandless, "had admitted to misconduct." Police pressured the youth into changing his story about what happened on a school camping trip that McCandless chaperoned alone in late October, Trani said.

Trani's claims are contained in a motion he filed last week laying out some of his strategy for defending the 30-year-old woman charged with sexually assaulting the boy.

Trani filed the motion in response to District Judge James H. Hiatt's request that the attorney detail his rationale for subpoenaing the boy.

McCandless, a former social studies teacher at Brighton Charter High School, was allowed to post bond Monday after spending four nights in jail for allegedly calling the boy in violation of her original bail conditions.

Chris McCandless, her husband and principal of the school, helped her arrange $50,000 in bonds to get out of jail after she appeared in court wearing bright orange jail garb and handcuffs.

The boy appeared at her last court hearing two weeks ago on Trani's subpoena. But the hearing was continued so that lawyers could submit arguments to the judge outlining why the boy should or should not take the stand in a preliminary hearing.

Both sides told the judge then that they were negotiating a plea deal for McCandless.

According to the affidavit for her latest arrest, McCandless called the boy 15 minutes after that hearing. Trani suggested that someone impersonating McCandless may have called the boy.

Deputy District Attorney Michael Pierson told the judge the boy was familiar enough with McCandless to recognize her voice on the phone.

"The defense believes that it is entirely possible that (the boy) will testify that there was no sexual contact between he and Ms. McCandless," Trani wrote in his motion.

Trani goes on to say that the boy's initial statement to authorities was that he tried to kiss McCandless and she rebuffed his advances, saying they were inappropriate.

The boy repeated the story in a taped interview with investigating officers, and the boy "insisted that there was no sexual contact between he and Ms. McCandless," Trani's motion said. "(The boy) made no allegations against Ms. McCandless until the investigating officers pressured him by calling him a liar, falsely telling him that Ms. McCandless had admitted to misconduct, and falsely telling him that there was an eyewitness to the alleged misconduct."

McCandless' arrest affidavit details a monthlong relationship between the teacher and her student that included the exchange of 76 text messages in a single day and culminated with a sexual encounter on the camping trip.

The court must hear directly from the boy and try to determine his credibility before binding the case over for trial, Trani argued.

Judge Hiatt, however, ruled last week that the boy could not be subpoenaed.

"If (prosecutors) fail to show probable cause, or if they seek to do so using an impermissible degree of hearsay under Colorado law, they will fail," Hiatt wrote in his order. "That is their risk. But that does not create a right in defendant to call, and cross-examine, the alleged victim."

A preliminary hearing is scheduled for Feb. 22.

bargec@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-5059