Fairfax teacher Sean Lanigan still suffering from false molestation allegations
By Tom Jackman,
Sean Lanigan’s nightmare began in January 2010, when the principal at Centre Ridge Elementary School pulled him out of the physical education class he was teaching and quietly walked him into an interrogation with two Fairfax County police detectives.
He had no warning that a 12-year-old girl at the Centreville school had accused him of groping and molesting her in the gym.
He had no warning that a 12-year-old girl at the Centreville school had accused him of groping and molesting her in the gym.
The girl, angry at Lanigan about something else entirely, had made the whole thing up. But her accusations launched a soul-sapping rollercoaster ride that still hasn’t ended.
“Emotionally, a part of me has died inside,” Lanigan said in a recent interview. “I’m physically and mentally exhausted all the time, how the whole process has been dragged out to this date. It certainly has affected the quality of life for me and my family at home.”
Lanigan remains in limbo, nearly a year after a jury’s acquittal. The Fairfax School District transferred him from Centre Ridge in a move that ultimately forced his wife to quit her job. School officials are now transferring him again. And the district has refused to pay his $125,000 in legal fees, even though Virginia law allows reimbursement for employees who are cleared of wrongdoing on the job.
Lanigan will never forget the day he was pulled from class. Shortly after the detectives questioned him, Lanigan, then 43 — a married father of three with a long history of service as a teacher, top-ranked soccer coach and neighborhood babysitter — had to tell his children he was going to be arrested.
“We try to teach them to do the right thing,” Lanigan said, “and I had to tell them that Daddy was going to jail and my name was going to be on the news. It was heartbreaking.”
That was followed by four nights in the Fairfax County Adult Detention Center.
“It was scary,” he said. “I was just wide-eyed. I’m an accused child molester. I’m thinking, ‘How am I going to last in here?’ ”
From there, Lanigan spent months in anxious exile, forced from his school, his players, his neighbors and his friends, pondering the possibility of up to 40 years in a state penitentiary.
That soon turned to relief. A jury found him not guilty after just 47 minutes of deliberation — virtually unheard of in a child sex abuse case. Jurors were outraged by the lack of evidence, with one weeping in sympathy during closing arguments.
But still the nightmare continues, as Lanigan struggles to earn back his reputation and career.
Within two weeks of the accuser’s report — without ever speaking to the girl — Fairfax detectives arrested Lanigan and charged him with aggravated sexual battery and abduction. The Washington Post is not naming the accuser because she is a minor.
Police issued a press release with Lanigan’s booking photo and home address, and the school district sent home a letter about his arrest. TV trucks descended on the school and his neighborhood, and Lanigan’s reputation took a lasting beating. Even today, the first thing that comes up in a Google search of Sean Lanigan is a Web site called “Bad Bad Teacher.”
“Emotionally, a part of me has died inside,” Lanigan said in a recent interview. “I’m physically and mentally exhausted all the time, how the whole process has been dragged out to this date. It certainly has affected the quality of life for me and my family at home.”
Lanigan remains in limbo, nearly a year after a jury’s acquittal. The Fairfax School District transferred him from Centre Ridge in a move that ultimately forced his wife to quit her job. School officials are now transferring him again. And the district has refused to pay his $125,000 in legal fees, even though Virginia law allows reimbursement for employees who are cleared of wrongdoing on the job.
Lanigan will never forget the day he was pulled from class. Shortly after the detectives questioned him, Lanigan, then 43 — a married father of three with a long history of service as a teacher, top-ranked soccer coach and neighborhood babysitter — had to tell his children he was going to be arrested.
“We try to teach them to do the right thing,” Lanigan said, “and I had to tell them that Daddy was going to jail and my name was going to be on the news. It was heartbreaking.”
That was followed by four nights in the Fairfax County Adult Detention Center.
“It was scary,” he said. “I was just wide-eyed. I’m an accused child molester. I’m thinking, ‘How am I going to last in here?’ ”
From there, Lanigan spent months in anxious exile, forced from his school, his players, his neighbors and his friends, pondering the possibility of up to 40 years in a state penitentiary.
That soon turned to relief. A jury found him not guilty after just 47 minutes of deliberation — virtually unheard of in a child sex abuse case. Jurors were outraged by the lack of evidence, with one weeping in sympathy during closing arguments.
But still the nightmare continues, as Lanigan struggles to earn back his reputation and career.
Police issued a press release with Lanigan’s booking photo and home address, and the school district sent home a letter about his arrest. TV trucks descended on the school and his neighborhood, and Lanigan’s reputation took a lasting beating. Even today, the first thing that comes up in a Google search of Sean Lanigan is a Web site called “Bad Bad Teacher.”
Police declined to allow Nicole Christian, the lead detective on the case, to be interviewed for this article. Several months after Lanigan was acquitted, Fairfax prosecutors dismissed another of Christian’s child abuse cases in the middle of trial, a rarity, when the detective acknowledged that she had “misstated” some key facts in her sworn testimony.
Instead of Christian, Fairfax police allowed a former child sex abuse lieutenant to be interviewed about investigative procedures, but he was not involved with Lanigan’s case.
Instead of Christian, Fairfax police allowed a former child sex abuse lieutenant to be interviewed about investigative procedures, but he was not involved with Lanigan’s case.
In addition, they released this statement from Officer Don Gotthardt, a spokesman: “There is a system of checks and balances between the police department, the commonwealth attorney and the magistrate. That system was followed, and it was determined that sufficient probable cause existed to proceed with prosecution.”
Fairfax Commonwealth’s Attorney Raymond F. Morrogh declined to comment for this article.
The Fairfax County School District declined to comment.
The parents of the accuser declined to comment.
Sean Lanigan grew up in Herndon, graduated from Herndon High School and earned a business degree from George Mason University. But he struggled to find a career until he volunteered to coach the crew team at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology.
Lanigan is a jock, a soccer fanatic, a goalkeeper with “GK” tattooed on his leg. Coaching and teaching was a way to keep sports in his life.
“I fell in love with it,” he said. “Seeing kids through and watching them develop, mature, grow into productive citizens. I come to work with a smile on my face every day.”
After working in the mortgage business, Lanigan had to return to college to earn another degree, in physical education, to get a teaching job in Fairfax. But he did it, and after working briefly at Stone Middle School in Centreville, he was placed at Centre Ridge in 1998.
“His heart was really with the kids,” said Kathy Young, a longtime sixth-grade teacher at Centre Ridge. “He’d pick kids up and twirl them. But what I really liked about Sean, as much as he liked playing with them, he’d always say, ‘Your schoolwork comes first.’ ”
In his Centreville neighborhood, where Lanigan lives with his wife and children, ages 14, 11 and 8, he was the dad all the kids loved, the carpool driver, the babysitter, the human jungle gym, with nicknames for everyone. “I have no qualms about having him around my children,” one mother said. “He makes my kids feel at ease. My son just adores him. He doesn’t understand how all of this happened.”
Lanigan has coached soccer continually, both at the youth travel level and high school at his alma mater — Herndon is unbeaten and the top-ranked team in the region. But Centre Ridge was his second home. When Young’s future son-in-law died in a fire, Lanigan arranged a fundraiser. In 2002, when the school needed a new playground, he and another teacher helped raise tens of thousands of dollars to get one built.
In December 2009, Lanigan was head of the Centre Ridge safety patrols. He received a phone call from a parent, complaining that a 12-year-old girl on patrol on a school bus was abusive to other children. Lanigan warned the girl that she would lose the privilege of being on patrol if she did not behave. Another teacher heard this exchange and told the girl she could also be removed as a news reader on Centre Ridge’s morning TV news show.
See the rest of the article HERE
The accuser although found to be Perjures is still not in trouble. Why? Because she is a girl, for even a 6 yr old male is not save in our society. NO WONDER we are made fun of all over the world....
Fairfax Commonwealth’s Attorney Raymond F. Morrogh declined to comment for this article.
The Fairfax County School District declined to comment.
The parents of the accuser declined to comment.
Sean Lanigan grew up in Herndon, graduated from Herndon High School and earned a business degree from George Mason University. But he struggled to find a career until he volunteered to coach the crew team at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology.
Lanigan is a jock, a soccer fanatic, a goalkeeper with “GK” tattooed on his leg. Coaching and teaching was a way to keep sports in his life.
“I fell in love with it,” he said. “Seeing kids through and watching them develop, mature, grow into productive citizens. I come to work with a smile on my face every day.”
After working in the mortgage business, Lanigan had to return to college to earn another degree, in physical education, to get a teaching job in Fairfax. But he did it, and after working briefly at Stone Middle School in Centreville, he was placed at Centre Ridge in 1998.
“His heart was really with the kids,” said Kathy Young, a longtime sixth-grade teacher at Centre Ridge. “He’d pick kids up and twirl them. But what I really liked about Sean, as much as he liked playing with them, he’d always say, ‘Your schoolwork comes first.’ ”
In his Centreville neighborhood, where Lanigan lives with his wife and children, ages 14, 11 and 8, he was the dad all the kids loved, the carpool driver, the babysitter, the human jungle gym, with nicknames for everyone. “I have no qualms about having him around my children,” one mother said. “He makes my kids feel at ease. My son just adores him. He doesn’t understand how all of this happened.”
Lanigan has coached soccer continually, both at the youth travel level and high school at his alma mater — Herndon is unbeaten and the top-ranked team in the region. But Centre Ridge was his second home. When Young’s future son-in-law died in a fire, Lanigan arranged a fundraiser. In 2002, when the school needed a new playground, he and another teacher helped raise tens of thousands of dollars to get one built.
See the rest of the article HERE
The accuser although found to be Perjures is still not in trouble. Why? Because she is a girl, for even a 6 yr old male is not save in our society. NO WONDER we are made fun of all over the world....
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