By RANDY CHOW, ASHLEY BURKETT and MAXIMO LEGASPE
Anne Arundel County School Board candidate Chuck Yocum made headlines when the Baltimore Banner reported earlier this month that he was accused and acquitted of child sexual abuse thirty years ago.
But he’s not the only Maryland school board candidate who has faced some kind of legal issue. Alverne W. Chesterfield, a candidate from Somerset County, had a peace order issued against him in 2022 that he said was related to a dispute with a neighbor. And the state filed a tax lien against St. Mary’s County candidate Brandie Edelen in 2019.
The Local News Network discovered these two issues in a review of the Maryland and federal court records of all 109 school board candidates in the state. LNN has not found any court records for Yocum 1994 acquittal on charges of child abuse, meaning the data was likely deleted after a jury found him not guilty.
The research revealed far fewer legal problems among school board candidates than LNN found two years ago. During the 2022 elections, LNN discovered 12 candidates who had been dealing with tax liens and a candidate from Charles County who had been accused of shoplifting several times.
This year, Yocum had the most serious alleged crime among Maryland school board candidates.
Yocum, a special education and social studies teacher at Anne Arundel County’s Northeast High School, was indicted on charges of child sex abuse and perverse practices, The Washington Post reported more than three decades ago.
Terrie Jahnigen Warfield, who says she testified against Yocum, said in a social media post last week that she had sexual relations with Yocum when she was 16 years old.
“I was emotionally, physically and mentally abused (by Yocum),” Warfied said. “I deserve justice, and so do everyone else he hurt.”
Yocum was contacted by LNN and asked for a response to the allegations. He referred to a statement from Warfield’s mother, Kathy Burkhard. LNN could not independently verify the statement, but the Baltimore Sun reported it on Monday quoted Burkhard said of her daughter, “She is incapable of telling the truth. I’ve had problems with her since she was almost fifteen.”
Although Yocum was found not guilty of criminal charges, school officials launched a thorough internal investigation to determine the validity of allegations that Yocum sexually harassed students as young as 13 or made inappropriate comments, according to The Banner.
“Mr. Yocum was found not guilty of sexual abuse by a criminal court. However, this investigation investigated additional allegations against Mr. Yocum that were not criminal conduct but may have been indicative of misconduct or immorality,” according to the school’s 1994 internal investigation report, which was reviewed by The Banner.
Yocum never returned to teaching after the Anne Arundel County Public Schools investigation, The Banner reported.
Six Anne Arundel Democrats, including County Executive Steuart Pittman, have called on Yocum to withdraw from the school board race, citing the child sex abuse allegations against him, The Banner reported.
The other legal issues uncovered by the Local News Network in its investigation of the school board candidates are far less serious than those surrounding Yocum.
LNN discovered that Alverne W. “Chet” Chesterfield, who is running for the Board of Education in Somerset County District 2, had a peace order issued against him on May 31, 2022, valid through December 6 of that year .
The order reads: “Will not abuse, will not contact, will not enter dwelling,” but the court order does not detail the circumstances that led to the peace order, nor does it name the person who requested it.
When asked for comment on the peace order, Chesterfield told LNN: “It’s not nothing to really comment on. It was just a dispute between me and my neighbor over the property line. That’s all.”
He said the disagreement had been taken to court and the matter had been resolved.
“It’s nothing serious,” he said.
LNN also discovered that Brandie Edelen, who is running for a seat on the at-large school board in St. Mary’s County, had a state tax lien filed against her in 2019 due to $594.04 in back taxes.
Edelen said she and her family at the time were dealing with funeral costs and disposition of the estate of her late father, who passed away in March 2019. She said she got distracted and “simply forgot to file her taxes.” The lien was filed in May 2019 and taxes were paid in 2020.
The LNN review of the candidate court files also found liens and other tax matters that may have been related to other candidates, but which the court and State Board of Elections documents could not conclusively pin on those candidates are linked. This happened in several cases where candidates had a common first and last name.
LNN only reported on candidates whose dates of birth and addresses conclusively proved that they were the person involved in the lawsuits.