CHARLESTON – A former special needs student says he endured three years of “constant sexual abuse and assaults” by a Cabell County teacher.
The man, identified only as John Doe, filed his complaint July 7 in Kanawha Circuit Court against Melissa Dailey, the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Services, the West Virginia State Board of Education, the Cabell County Board of Education, Karen Oldham, John Morrison, Jack Parsons and other John Doe defendants.
The plaintiff, who is now 35 years old, says the abuse and assaults took place from the fall of 2005 through the spring of 2008 when he was a student at Cabell Midland High School.
Griffith
Dailey was the teacher, and Oldham was the principal at Midland. Morrison was an investigator with the state BOE, and Parsons was a roving investigator with the DHHR. The John Doe defendants are individuals and/or organizations that could include the Cabell County Sheriff’s Department, Dr. Neal G. Adkins, William A. Smith, Theresa Blevins, Lafe Roberts, Margaret “Peggy” Brown and/or the Cabell County Commission.
According to the complaint, the plaintiff had an uninterested father and an absentee mother during his childhood. He says he often appeared at school unclean and unfed, and he says Dailey took him “under her wing.” She allowed the boy to sleep at her home, and she showered him with gifts including clothing, shoes and hunting equipment. He says he considered her a mother figure.
One day in the fall of 2005, he says Dailey took her own children at her home with her husband before taking him to his house. But instead of taking him directly home, he says Dailey drove him to a secluded section of Mud River Road near Milton and raped him.
“She told the boy that she would never see him again and would not continue to take care of him if he ever told anyone,” the complaint states. “Melissa Dailey would take the child to her home, empty classrooms at school, her vehicle and on occasion to a friend’s home who had given her the electronic code to her garage.”
The complaint says the friend was unaware of the sexual abuse that was taking place in her home.
In the winter of 2005, Dailey became pregnant with the plaintiff’s child, but he says he didn’t know about the pregnancy. The complaint says she aborted the child.
After that, the plaintiff says he was subjected to more sexual abuse at the friend’s home. He says Dailey left a towel with bodily fluids on the floor, and the friend’s husband found the towel. When he asked his wife about it, she asked Dailey, who then admitted her conduct with the plaintiff, including the pregnancy and abortion.
The friend reported Dailey’s actions to Oldham, and Oldham informed the state BOE and DHHR on January 3, 2006. Both the plaintiff and Dailey denied the allegations with the BOE and DHHR began their investigations, but the DHHR discovered purchases made by Dailey for the plaintiff as well as alcohol use by the plaintiff at Dailey’s home.
The friend also confirmed that confession in a sworn statement taken earlier this month that is include as an exhibit in the complaint.
The DHHR’s final decision could not substantiate the allegations made by the friend, saying the only thing Dailey was guilty of was “poor judgment.” The state BOE investigation was stopped for an unknown reason, according to the complaint. Criminal charges never were filed against Dailey.
Dailey and her husband divorced, and the plaintiff says she continued to sexually abuse him for two years at school and elsewhere until she remarried and moved to Texas.
During his 11th grade year, the plaintiff says Oldham accused him of threatening her, which he denies. He was transferred to an alternative school and dropped out with a 2.48 grade point average.
“Plaintiff remains functionally illiterate with rudimentary reading and writing skills,” the complaint states. “Plaintiff continued through adulthood becoming leery of authority figures and developing a personal condition wherein he refused to allow people to physically touch him.”
In June 2022, the plaintiff married and told his spouse about what had happened with Dailey. That led him to confide in others and for the lawsuit to be filed.
Dailey has since returned to West Virginia and began teaching again for Cabell County Schools.
Attorney Travis Griffith, who is representing the plaintiff, says he requested the plaintiff’s school record from the Cabell County BOE. When he received them, he says it showed Dailey had used her position as a special education teacher to request and obtain the plaintiff’s mental health records from the Prestera Center on February 17, 2005, which was months before the alleged sexual abuse began.
The plaintiff accuses the Cabell BOE, Dailey and Oldham of breach of fiduciary duty and all defendants of negligent and intentional infliction of emotional distress as well as violations of the West Virginia Human Rights Act and civil conspiracy. He accuses Dailey of battery. He also accuses the Cabell BOE, the state BOE, the DHHR and Oldham of breach of special relationship duty; the Cabell BOE and Oldham of negligent supervision and negligent training; the Cabell BOE, the state BOE, the DHHR, Parsons and Morrison of negligence; the Cabell BOE and Dailey of sexual assault and abuse; the Cabell BOE, the DHHR, the state BOE, Oldham, Parsons and Morrison of negligence and gross negligence; and the Cabell BOE the state BOE and Morrison of negligent retention.
He seeks compensatory damages for past and future injuries, punitive damages, pre- and post-judgment interests, attorney fees, court costs and other relief.
The plaintiff is being represented by Griffith with Griffith Law Center in Charleston. The case has been assigned to Circuit Judge Maryclaire Akers.
Kanawha Circuit Court case number 23-C-576
