By RANDY CHOW, ASHLEY BURKETT and MAXIMO LEGASPE

Anne Arundel County school board candidate Chuck Yocum made headlines when he wore the Baltimore Banner reported He was indicted and acquitted earlier this month of child sexual abuse three decades ago.

But he’s not the only Maryland school board candidate facing legal trouble of one kind or another. Somerset County candidate Alverne W. Chesterfield filed a peace order against himself in 2022, saying it was tied to a dispute with a neighbor. And the state, in 2019, St. He had filed a tax lien against St. Mary’s County candidate Brandie Edelen.

The Local News Network found these two issues in its review of Maryland and federal court records for 109 school board candidates in the state. LNN could not find Yocum’s court records 1994 acquittal on child sexual abuse charges, which means the records were likely expunged after the jury found him not guilty.

The review found far fewer legal problems among school board candidates than LNN found two years ago. In the 2022 elections, LNN found: 12 candidates facing tax debt and running for Charles County is accused of theft multiple times.

This year, the most serious alleged crime among Maryland school board candidates involved Yocum.

Yocum, a special education and social studies teacher at Anne Arundel County’s Northeast High School, was accused of child sexual abuse and deviant practices, the Washington Post reported more than 30 years ago.

Terrie Jahnigen Warfield, who said she testified against Yocum, said in a social media post last week that she had sexual intercourse with Yocum when she was 16.

“I was emotionally, physically and mentally abused by my partner,” Warfied said in question. “I deserve justice and so does everyone else he hurt.”

Contacted by LNN and seeking a response to the allegations, Yocum referred to a statement from Warfield’s mother, Kathy Burkhard. LNN could not independently verify this statement, but reported Monday to the Baltimore Sun quotation Burkhard said of his daughter: “She is incapable of telling the truth. I’ve had problems with it since I was almost 15 years old.

Although Yocum was found not guilty of criminal charges, school officials launched an extensive internal investigation to determine the validity of allegations that Yocum sexually harassed or made inappropriate comments to students as young as 13, according to The Banner.

“Mr. Yocum was found not guilty of sexual abuse in a criminal court. However, this investigation also reviewed additional allegations against Mr. Yocum that were not criminal conduct but were likely indicative of misconduct or immorality,” the school stated in its 1994 internal investigation report reviewed by The Banner.

After the Anne Arundel County Public Schools investigation, Yocum never returned to teaching, The Banner reported.

Six Anne Arundel Democrats, including county executive Steuart Pittman, called for Yocum to withdraw from the school board race, citing child sexual abuse allegations against him, according to The Banner. reported.

Other legal issues uncovered by the Local News Network in its investigation of school board candidates are far less serious than those involving Yocum.

LNN found that Alverne W. “Chet” Chesterfield, a candidate for the Somerset County District 2 Board of Education, had a peace order issued against him on May 31, 2022, valid until December 6 of that year.

The order states “No Exploitation, No Contact, No Residence” but the court order does not list the circumstances that led to the peace order or the name of the person requesting it.

When asked for comment on the peace order, Chesterfield told LNN: “It’s not really anything to comment on. It was just a dispute between my neighbor and me over property rights. That’s all.”

He said the dispute was taken to court and the issue was resolved.

“It’s nothing serious,” he said.

LNN also, St. It also found that Brandie Edelen, who is running for an at-large school board seat in St. Mary’s County, had a state tax lien filed against her in 2019 for $594.04 in back taxes.

Edelen said that at the time, he and his family were dealing with funeral expenses and liquidating the estate of his late father, who passed away in March 2019. He said he was distracted and “forgot to file his taxes.” The lien decision made in May 2019 was resolved and the tax was paid in 2020.

LNN’s review of candidate court records also turned up foreclosure and other tax cases that may be connected to other candidates but cannot be conclusively linked to those candidates, according to court and State Board of Elections records. This happened in many cases where candidates had common first and last names.

LNN only reported on candidates whose dates of birth and addresses conclusively proved that they were the person involved in these cases.