Insanity defense pursued

Woman accused of sex with pupil

The attorney for a former Waldron Middle School assistant principal charged with having sex with a male student has given notice his client is pursuing an insanity defense.

A one-sentence filing in Scott County Circuit Court on Friday by Ernie Witt of Ozark said Jessica Williams intends to rely on the defense of mental disease or defect.

Williams, 37, was charged in August with five counts of first-degree sexual assault and one count of tampering with physical evidence. The trial was scheduled to begin Tuesday, but Circuit Judge Jerry Don Ramey ordered the trial delayed until January.

Witt filed a motion Monday for a fitness to proceed examination, according to court records. Ramey filed paperwork the same day ordering the testing.

In the motion, Witt wrote of there was a reasonable suspicion Williams was unfit to proceed to trial because of mental problems. At the time of Williams’ arrest, the motion said, police and witnesses “noticed mental issues.”

“The defendant has been committed to a mental facility at least once since [her] incarceration on this offense,” Witt wrote.

The incidents for which Williams is charged occurred between June 1 and Aug. 13, according to the prosecutor’s criminal complaint. She was arrested Aug. 29 and was freed on a $100,000 bond.

She was arrested again in mid-September when deputy prosecutor Mark Johnson filed a petition to revoke her bond, charging she violated the bond conditions by having contact with the 16-year-old student she was charged with assaulting. Her bond was set at $150,000, according to court records.

Williams was released Thursday after posting an additional $50,000 bond, records showed.

An affidavit by Waldron police detective Horacio Gonzalez said Williams confessed to having sex with the 16-yearold male student, exchanged sexual photos with him and she “factory-reset” her cellphone when Gonzalez went to seize it from her.

According to androidcentral.com, a factory reset will erase all data on the phone.

The affidavit said Gonzalez was notified Aug. 13 an anonymous letter was sent to the Waldron Public School central office saying the student disclosed to several people h had sex with Williams and they exchanged several pictures of themselves.

With his mother present during his interview with Gonzalez, the student said he and Williams had been acquainted during the 2017-18 school year and through social media and had exchanged sexual pictures, the affidavit said.

During the summer, the student said, he and Williams had sex 15-20 times. The affidavit said the student told Gonzalez he and Williams communicated by cellphone.

When confronted initially by Gonzalez, Williams denied having any relationship or contact with the student, the affidavit said.

Gonzalez told Williams he would have to seize her phone. She agreed to turn over her phone and passcard but wouldn’t give Gonzalez consent to search it, according to the affidavit.

Before surrendering the phone, the affidavit said, Williams told Gonzalez she wanted to send a text message to her family so they would know she didn’t have her phone. She told Gonzalez she couldn’t get good reception in her office and asked to step outside to send her message. Gonzalez waited a couple of minutes then went outside and took the phone from Williams.

After seizing the phone, Gonzalez attempted to place the phone on the “airplane” setting and discovered the phone’s data had been erased, the affidavit said.