Krista Grimes declined to be tried by a jury in St. John’s Superior Court on Wednesday. (Malone Mullin/CBC)
A St. John’s High School teacher opted Wednesday to waive a trial, 3 1/2 years after her arrest on sexual exploitation charges.
Krista Grimes is facing allegations that she had sexual contact with a student at the high school where she worked. She was indicted in 2019, initially requesting a jury trial.
On Wednesday morning, however, she decided to be heard in person by a judge.
Grimes, now in her mid-30s, sat expressionless in the Supreme Court dock as her lawyer continued to challenge a Royal Newfoundland Police investigator for a criminal investigation into Grimes’ alleged misconduct.
It all started with an anonymous email to the school board detailing rumors that Grimes had slept with students.
That letter called her a “pedophile” who had “had sex with boys,” prompting a police investigation, the RNC witness told the court.
Roselene Sullivan, the attorney hired by Grimes last year after she fired school board appointee Ian Petty, repeatedly pushed the witness about apparent flaws in the RNC’s investigation, trying to poke numerous holes in their evidence.
The witness said the complainant, a boy who said he had sex with Grimes, had Grimes’ cell phone number and said the two would exchange Snapchat messages and texts.
But the witness acknowledged that police did not cross-check Grimes’ cellphone for some of those claims, which included knowledge of an intimate photo of the teacher.
Sullivan pointed out that the boy in question admitted to having access to Grimes’ phone during school hours and asked if the student might have been looking at Grimes’ photos without her knowledge.
“It’s possible,” replied the investigator.
The boy also couldn’t say exactly when the alleged sexual contact happened during police interviews, Sullivan noted, asking the investigator if that struck them as odd.
“Now that I look back, I can say yes,” the investigator replied.
Grimes’ defense spent much of Wednesday morning suggesting the substitute teacher was the victim of long-standing, widespread rumors, pointing out that students had gone so far as to nickname her “The Grimes Prey.” At one point, Sullivan noted, a student posted a photo of Grimes on Instagram with the caption “#MeToo,” which he later told investigators was a joke based on rumors that she had slept with students.
“There’s a pattern of these rumors going on for six years,” Sullivan said. “At any time did you sit… and [did it] did it occur to you that this was all?”
“There was a possibility,” the witness said. “We were very aware of the extent of the rumours.”
Testimony is scheduled to continue Thursday.
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