PORTLAND — A former Westbrook teacher assistant who is charged with sexually abusing a teenage student, and a Westbrook school board member who is accused of obstructing the investigation, have pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Neither School Committee member Suzanne Joyce nor Dereck Gilman, who was a special education technician at Westbrook Middle School, appeared for their arraignment on Tuesday. Joyce’s attorney and Gilman’s attorney filed paperwork in Cumberland County Unified Criminal Court in advance to enter the pleas on behalf of their clients.
Gilman, 24, of 162 Central St. in Westbrook, was indicted by a grand jury last month on charges of unlawful sexual touching and sexual abuse of a child. He is accused of engaging in sex acts with a 17-year-old student from May 1, 2012, to Jan. 30, 2013, while he was an employee of the school district. Joyce was indicted on a single charge of hindering the apprehension or prosecution of Gilman, who resigned in April.
The indictment accuses her of obstructing Andrew Keirstead, another Westbrook teacher assistant, “by force, intimidation or deception” from acting to “aid in the discovery, apprehension, prosecution or conviction of Dereck Gilman.”
The District Attorney’s Office has released no further information on the cases. The lead prosecutor, Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Ackerman, has filed a motion to have them tried jointly.
Joyce said after she was indicted that she was shocked and had no idea why she was charged. Some school board members and other leaders in Westbrook echoed her shock in the days after the indictment.
Joyce, 51, has served on the school board since 2010 and served previously for more than eight years on the City Council.
She has declined to describe the relationship between the teenager, Gilman and herself. She said last month that once she had more information and discussed the case with her attorney, William Childs, she would make a public statement. She has not commented publicly since then.
Neither Childs nor Gilman’s attorney, Peter Rodway, returned phone calls seeking comment Tuesday.
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