SPEARS CITED FOR VIOLATING PROBATION
Editor’s note: This news brief was originally published in the July 18th edition of the County Courier. Subscribe to our print edition to keep up with all our news, even the news that doesn’t make our website. Visit mkt.com/courier
ST. ALBANS: A former school employee was back in court on Monday after accusation arose that she violated her conditions of parole.
According to court documents, Josie Spears violated her parole conditions by having unsupervised contact with her son.
The court documents also say she had supervised contact with her son, but that those people were not approved by her probation officer.
Spears is serving a term of probation that would supervise her until 2025, and also has an underlying sentence on several sex-crime convictions, adding up to 18 years, all of which are suspended sentences.
Spears allegedly had sexual contact with a third-grade boy she was tasked with helping to educate at the Highgate Elementary School. She was arrested in February of 2017, pleading guilty to the charges in December of 2018.
According to Spears’ parole officer, the allegations came after an unannounced inspection of Spears’ home by the probation department.
“Spears advised me that she has had unsupervised contact with her son, as well as contact with her son that was not supervised by an approved supervisor,” wrote Department of Probation and Parole Officer Cori Farnham.
The violation of probation affidavit also outlines one instance when Spears’ son did not want to stay the night with his father, so Spears took him in for the night, alone, without anyone else in the house,
stated in the same affidavit, Spears allegedly told her probation officer.
The violation comes just days after Spears filed for a modification of her probation conditions to allow her to have contact with female minors under the age of 16. Currently, Spears is barred from having contact with any children regardless of gender.
Spears’ attorney cites the initial allegations that her victim was a young boy as a reason to allow female contact.
No ruling has been made on that motion at the time of her arraignment.
