Jury hung in trial of Henrico teacher accused of sex assault on student

A jury could not reach a verdict on Thursday in the trial of Dean Lakey, a Short Pump Middle School teacher accused of sexually assaulting a student in 2017. Henrico Circuit Court Judge L.A. Harris declared a mistrial.

After closing statements from both sides, the jury went into deliberations around noon. At about 3 p.m., the judge announced that the jury was unable to reach a verdict. The jury deliberated again, and about an hour later decided once more that it could not reach an agreement.

There was no physical evidence or corroboration, so the case ultimately came down to Lakey’s testimony versus the victim’s testimony.

“Do you believe her or do you believe him,” Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Kelly Cotting asked the jury in her closing statement on Thursday. “Nobody else knows because nobody else was there.”

The alleged assault is said to have occurred in March 2017, four years before it was reported to Child Protective Services. Lakey’s attorney, Craig Cooley, focused on the delayed disclosure in his defense.

Cooley said Thursday that the victim might have fabricated the assault for attention. Cotting said that was the most offensive thing she’s heard in 11 years as a prosecutor.

“Every step of this… has been torture for her,” Cotting said. “Why in God’s name would anyone go through what she went through?”

Cooley also referenced the girl’s history of self-harm and implied that she may have mental health issues. He asked why the victim’s own mother and grandmother would not believe her, and implied that it could have been because she had “fibbed” so many times before.

Cotting contrasted the victim, a “socially awkward” “nobody”, with Lakey, the “king of Short Pump Middle School.” Cotting said that dynamic played out in the courtroom.

“You saw how she was treated [in court],” Cotting said. “Then you ask why she didn’t tell.”

The gallery was filled with Lakey’s friends, family and colleagues sitting shoulder to shoulder in the courtroom on Thursday, and some waited out in the hallway because there wasn’t enough space in the courtroom.

Cotting referenced the apparent support of the seven witnesses who testified to Lakey’s character on Wednesday. The five Short Pump Middle School teachers who testified said they did not remember the victim.

“These were the people who were supposed to keep her safe,” Cotting said. “And they didn’t even remember her.”

Lakey was indicted in August for six felonies: one count of rape, two counts of sodomy, and three counts of indecent liberties with a minor as a custodian. Last week, the charges were amended to one count of indecent liberties and one count of object sexual battery.

The prosecution explained that the charges were amended because Cotting took over the case from another prosecutor last week. The defense buckled down on the charges that were not prosecuted, and said that the commonwealth decided not to prosecute them because the commonwealth realized the case was leaking oil.

“This isn’t drops of oil, this is an oil slick,” Cooley said. “Her credibility is undefendable.”

The victim, who was 14 at the time of the alleged assault, testified on Tuesday, the first day of the trial. She is now 18.

She described Lakey coming into the bathroom at Short Pump Middle School one evening after a Technology Student Association meeting, pushing her onto the sink and assaulting her from behind. She described hearing Lakey come into the bathroom, feeling the cold porcelain sink under her, and hearing Lakey breathing on her.

In his testimony on Wednesday, Lakey denied that he ever touched or had any sexual interaction with the girl. Cooley said that Lakey “couldn’t really” even recall her as one of his students.

One main point the defense often returned to was that the original Child Protective Services report of the alleged incident said that Lakey had locked the bathroom door before he assaulted the girl. There is no working lock to the bathroom in which the victim claimed the assault took place.

But Cotting on Thursday pointed out that the CPS report was a description of what the victim told her then-boyfriend, who then told his mother, who then told the CPS agent.

Another one of Cooley’s main arguments was that the assault could not have occurred at 7 p.m. because the girl would not have been at school at that time. A SPMS teacher who runs the after school program the victim participated in testified on Tuesday about the meeting times. However it was still unclear whether or not a meeting in March could have gone until 7 p.m.

Another sticking point from the defense was a gate that separates the gym and nearby bathroom where the alleged assault occurred from the rest of the school. Cooley repeatedly claimed that the gate went down at 4 p.m. each day so the victim could not have walked into that hallway at 7 p.m., but witnesses had differing testimonies about the gate and it remains unclear.

The victim “was not safe at Short Pump Middle School,” Cotting said. “She was not safe because teachers were not doing what they were supposed to be doing.”

The path forward for the case is unclear at this point. Henrico Commonwealth Attorney Shannon Taylor said after court was adjourned that the prosecution will explain the mistrial to the victim and decide what will come next. The case could be tried again.

But despite the outcome, that doesn’t lessen the commonwealth’s belief in the case or the victim, Taylor said.

Lakey, who has been a gym teacher at Short Pump Middle School for about 30 years, is still on unpaid leave from Henrico County Public Schools.