STINNETT — Jury selection was completed and an opening statement made on Monday by the district attorney in a trial against Myron Stiles, a former second teacher at Gateway Elementary School accused of an improper relationship with a former student.
Though there were originally three indictments, one for each of three female accusers, Stiles will only be tried on one, which was filed on May 31, 2017.
Stiles was 47 on the dates of the alleged incidents.
However, all three girls are expected to testify in court.
Stiles entered a plea of not guilty in the 316th District Court on Monday shortly after seven women and five men were selected for the jury. Two alternates also were chosen.
Judge James Mosley is the presiding judge and Mark W. Snider, district attorney for the 84th District, is the prosecutor. Stiles’ defense attorney is William Taylor of Amarillo.
Snider told the juries that although they will decide whether Stiles is innocent or guilty, Mosley will decide the sentence.
All eight of the alleged incidents by the three juveniles occurred between Feb. 12, 2013, and Oct. 1, 2015.
In the case being pursued by the state, Stiles is accused of intentionally and knowingly engaging in sexual contact with a victim who was a child younger than 17. He is also accused of doing so to gratify his sexual desire.
The first alleged incident occurred on Feb. 12, 2013, and the second on March 26, 2013.
Snider said the girl is now a freshman. He said that the jurors can consider the testimony of the other two alleged victims.
Taylor said the state must prove “intent” in both parts of the indictment. First, that Stiles intentionally and knowingly touched the girl in a sexual manner and, second, that his intent was sexual arousal.
The charges are second-degree felonies, which carry sentences of two to 20 years in prison and fines up to $10,000.
There were about 70 jury candidates in the courtroom, and while addressing them, Taylor took issue with a question and a computer-screen image that Snider had used earlier while questioning the candidates.
Snider had asked what a “child molester” looks like, and several potential jurors agreed that it could be a man or a woman of any age. At the same time, the words “child molester” were displayed on a screen with a sentence under them.
“What bothers me is when ‘child molester’ was displayed on the screen,” he said. “That was highly prejudicial.”
Taylor said there had been no evidence presented so far against Stiles and that the jury should make their decision “based upon the evidence and nothing more.”
In his opening statement, Snider said that three girls who were different ages and who had never met were making the same accusations.
Snider said the girls had all testified that they were touched by the same defendant at the same school and on the same area of their body in the same manner.
Snider also said that the girls testified that the incidents occurred in the classroom when Stiles called them over to his desk to talk with them.
Taylor reserved his opening statement. The trial is scheduled to reconvene at 9 a.m. today.
Stiles had been placed on administrative leave by BISD on Oct. 21, 2016. Stiles was employed with Borger ISD from Jan. 11, 2013, to March 28, 2017.
The case was investigated by the Borger Police Department and the Texas Rangers.
Stiles bond was set at $100,000. He was arrested on March 23, 2017, and held at the Hutchinson County Jail until he was released on April 10, 2017.