The teenager accused of sexually assaulting two students at different schools within the Loudoun County Public Schools has pleaded no contest to charges of abduction and sexual battery in the second case on Monday, meaning he conceded that there is ample evidence for a conviction but does not admit guilt.
The 15-year-old male was accused of forcing a female student into an empty classroom and then groping her breast, according to a prosecutor.
The incident, which took place in October, occurred months after the teenager switched to Broad Run High School amid a sheriff’s investigation into the first assault, a May 28 rape at Stone Bridge High School in which he has already been convicted.
The accused will be sentenced for both cases on Dec. 13. The maximum sentence he could face is placement in a state prison for juveniles until the age of 21, Loudoun County Commonwealth Attorney Buta Biberaj told ABC 7.
"My son is young and has a lot to learn. I hope he is given the opportunity to be better," the suspect's mother told the local outlet.
The two assaults captured national headlines after parents became outraged at how the first instance was handled by the school district.
During a June 22 school board meeting, Scott Smith, the father of the first victim, accused the district of covering up his daughter's rape so as to continue pushing transgender school policies because, as he alleged, the accused was a skirt-wearing male who attacked his daughter in a girl's restroom, according to The Daily Wire, which first reported the assault.
He was arrested at the meeting and ultimately charged after getting into an altercation with a woman who doubted his daughter was actually raped.
An email dated May 28, the same day as the first assault, showed that Superintendent Scott Ziegler alerted school board members that an assault had been reported, contradicting claims he made at the June 22 board meeting, when he said "the predator transgender student or person simply does not exist," and, to his knowledge, "we don’t have any record of assaults occurring in our restrooms."
The first victim's mother, Jessica Smith, released a statement following the second conviction, in which she said that "justice has prevailed for both our daughter and the other innocent child attacked by this predator."
"Today is not just another day for our family. It is a day that further vindicates my daughter against her attacker, holds him accountable for what he did, and helps advance the healing of both our daughter and our family from the suffering we have endured over these past months," the first victim's mother, Jessica Smith, said in a statement following the second conviction.
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