The 5th Judicial District Attorney’s Office has filed new charges of failure to report child abuse against three former and current Summit School District employees after a judge dismissed the original indictment.

In March 2023, a grand jury indicted former Summit Middle School Principal Greg Guevara, Summit Middle School counselor Maureen Flannagan, and former human resources director Grant Schmidt, each on one count of failure to report child abuse or neglect, a Class 3 misdemeanor. Flannagan remains on administrative leave, according to the school district.

The indictment of district employees came about six months after the arrest of a former middle school physical education teacher on felony sexual assault charges in August 2022. The failure to report child abuse charges the school professionals are facing allege that they failed to act as required by the state’s mandatory reporter laws on allegations students raised about the former teacher. A jury trial late last year acquitted the former physical education teacher of all charges.

Earlier this year, a human resource specialist indicted alongside the other three school professionals pleaded guilty to a single count of failure to report child abuse and received a two-year deferred judgement. 

But Summit County Judge Edward Casias in September dismissed the indictments against Guevara, Flannagan and Schmidt. Casias ruled in an order to dismiss filed in each of the three cases that the indictment omitted an “essential element” of the charge of failure to report child abuse – the capable mental state “willfully.” The indictments did not allege that the three had “willfully” violated their mandatory reporter duties, making it “legally insufficient,” he said.

“Generally, a defendant only commits a crime when he has committed a voluntary act prohibited by law, together with a culpable state of mind,” Casias wrote. “Thus, even if the grand jury determined that (the defendant) consciously decided not to report the incidents to one of the appropriate agencies listed in the statute, this does not mean that he willingly violated his duty as a mandatory reporter.”

Just days after Casias dismissed the case, the District Attorney’s Office filed new charges via a complaint. Guevara and Flannagan now each face three charges of failure to report child abuse or neglect, a Class 3 misdemeanor, according to court documents. Schmidt is facing two charges of failure to report child abuse. The newly filed charges include the culpable mental state “willfully” as part of the allegations.

On Monday, Nov. 4, Guevara, Flannagan and Schmidt appeared in Summit County court, where the next steps in the case were discussed. During the hearing, Deputy District Attorney Lauren Crisera said that the discovery in the newly filed cases as well as the dismissed cases is the same.

Guevara, Flannagan and Schmidt are next scheduled to appear in court on Dec. 10.