Harassment charges against Duncanville High School student dropped

by Angel Morris of Duncanville TODAY

While the court case against him was officially dismissed April 23, its aftermath is still a concern for Duncanville High School senior Joseph Smith.

Smith, who was arrested earlier this year for allegedly sending a threatening e-mail to a DHS teacher, is relieved the charge has been dropped. The fact that it was brought against him, however, means it may haunt him for years to come.

“The Dallas County District Attorney's office has filed a motion to dismiss the case against Joseph Smith, which is a good thing, but there's still a loose end to this whole story,” Smith's attorney, John Leigh, said.

Before getting to that loose end, Smith recapped the story that led him to this point.

Nov. 28, 2006, English teacher Shawnte Scesney received an e-mail threatening to cause harm to her and her son if she didn't leave the school by Dec. 1.

The e-mail came from an unknown addressee at the e-mail address scesneymustgo @yahoo.com at 1:55 p.m.

The e-mail suggested its author was displeased with grades received in Scesney's class, that the author and his or her “crew” had previously followed the teacher home and that the author had “very deadly shotguns” and was prepared to use them on the teacher if she didn't leave DHS in the next two days.

“Š I know where you live, you wouldn't want your son to get hurt would you? It's all left up to you Š just leave Duncanville High School and never return Š this is very, very, very serious Shawnte, don't just blow this off!”

Although the sender's identity could not be determined, investigators traced the e-mail to a library computer at the school and the user number to Smith's school ID and password.

“I had absolutely no reason to do something like this. I haven't been in this teacher's class for two years, and when I was in her class I made good grades. It just doesn't make any sense,” Smith said. “All I can think of is that someone managed to get my ID and password and used it to do this. But I don't know who would do something like that. I don't have any enemies myself.”

To school district officials, however, signs pointed to Smith, because his information was used to access the yahoo site.

Dec. 11 Smith was removed from class and questioned about the incident. He gave a written statement that he knew nothing about such an e-mail and had no reason to send it.

“I was completely confused. When I saw a copy of the e-mail, I thought it was mean and could see why they were taking it as harassment. But it wasn't from me,” he said.

Smith heard nothing more about the incident until after school resumed from winter break. Jan. 12. He was taken from class, arrested and transported to the Duncanville Police Department.

Smith remained in the city jail from 1-10 p.m. until his mother could get there from work to pay the $115 for his release.

Duncanville School District policy required Smith receive suspension while the matter was investigated. Following a hearing with district disciplinary administrators, Smith was admitted back to class and the issue dropped - on the school end, at least.

“I missed five days of school, which really put me behind in one class and also missed a field trip,” Smith said.

“After the hearing held by the disciplinary board of Duncanville administrators who determined that there was not substantial information to take further action, the student returned to school,” Duncanville School District Community Relations Director Tammy Kuykendall said.

But the story didn't end there for Smith, who later discovered the Dallas County District Attorney's office was pursuing the charge.

“As soon as the DA gets a police report, they create an official case. The system doesn't think about the ramifications of that,” Leigh said. “If the Duncanville Police Department had somehow pulled this report, the DA probably wouldn't have complained about it. DAs give a lot of discretion to the police.”

Community Information Administrator Keith Bilbrey said the police department's hands were tied on the case.

“The complainant was an individual and she was adamant about the charges and wanted to know why Smith wasn't in jail sooner,” Bilbrey said. “Once the case is filed, if the (teacher) wanted the charges dropped, that would come through the district attorney and not Duncanville PD.”

Smith's attorney tried to bring the case to the DA's attention before it got to the courtroom in hopes of a dismissal.

“At least once a week for the last month I have gone in personally to pester them as kindly as I could into confirming all this exculpatory evidence as quickly as possible,” Lee said.

While an acquittal by jury would ultimately be in Smith's best interest, there were consequences of a trial to consider.

“I told him that if you go to trial there's always a chance you can lose,” Lee said. “And most people have a difficult time affording an attorney for a jury trial, which can go on for months and months.”

Already out about $1,500 in bond and attorney fees, Smith agreed to the dismissal pursuit.

“My mom is having to use a big chunk of her paycheck and I'm having to use a chunk of my paycheck to try and take care of all of this,” Smith, who works at the Cedar Hill Cinemark theater, said.

While the news of a dismissal is good, Leigh said it brings us back to the loose ends Smith now faces.

“If you're acquitted in a trial you can get an expunction to clear your record. But if you get a dismissal, you are required to wait two years - the misdemeanor statute of limitations - before you can file a lawsuit for the expunction,” Leigh said.

This means that for at least the next two years, anyone inquiring about Smith - say college admissions offices or places of employment - could see that Smith was accused of a crime.

“If people go online they can find that Joseph Smith has this on his record. Even if they (investigate further and) see that it was dismissed, it could be enough to deter someone from hiring him, renting him an apartment or giving him some other opportunity,” Leigh said.

To completely clear his record, Smith would again need to employ an attorney two years from now.

“The suit can take 90 to 100 days and then you'd wait for the record to be destroyed, maybe another 6-12 months,” Leigh said. “So you're looking at having this on the Internet for two and a half years or more before the expunction can be effective. Those are Joseph's damages.”

Leigh said he believed the issue could have been avoided completely if the school district and the police department worked more closely in cases involving students.

“Duncanville is my alma mater and I think if this had gone to trial it would have been an embarrassment to the city and school district,” he said. “Because of all the evidence that indicated Joseph hadn't done this, I would have thought the city and school would have made a point to tell the DA they wanted this case dropped.”

Leigh was also disappointed there was no investigation into other suspects, particularly when a DHS counselor reported another student acting suspicious in what might have been related to the threatening e-mail.

“Police are up to their knees in bureaucratic inertia, but they are never willing to give up face by going backward and looking at other suspects,” Leigh said. “In this case, they should've further investigated the fingerprint of the suspect - it didn't fit Joseph at all.”

“Joseph was no longer in her class. He made good grades back when he was in her class. He's an honor student whose never even gone to the office or been in trouble. The police didn't follow the first plain-and- simple lead and now that's at Joseph's expense.”

Kuykendall said the district followed its policy in this matter successfully.

“The district is restricted by federal laws to discuss student educational records, which include disciplinary cases, with third-party entities (however) Š We addressed the issue by following our policies and procedures with the disciplinary hearing and feel the system worked.”

Ultimately, only the teacher who received the e-mail could have dropped the charges that led to the district attorney case.

“An administrator told me the teacher said she didn't even think it sounded like something I would do,” Smith said.

Smith never personally spoke with Scesney about the e-mail and Scesney did not return Duncanville Today's requests for comment.