Case against former Montville substitute teacher charged in slapboxing bouts resumes in August.
Ryan Fish will be back in court the same day as administrators facing charges
Montville — The case against the former high school substitute teacher accused of supervising four classroom slapboxing matches last fall will resume on Wednesday, Aug. 22, the same day three administrators also are due back in court for allegedly failing to report the bouts to authorities.
Ryan Fish, 23, of Bozrah pleaded not guilty in May to two counts of risk of injury to a minor, second-degree breach of peace and four counts of second-degree reckless endangerment after state police said he supervised four classroom fights between September and October.
Fish, who declined to comment on the record about the case, appeared alongside his attorney Paul Chinigo before Norwich Superior Court Judge Arthur Hadden on Wednesday afternoon. Hadden granted a continuance, with Chinigo noting Norwich-based prosecutor Christa Baker is handling the case but currently working on a trial in New London.
The charges against Fish and three of his former supervisors followed investigations by the Department of Children and Families and the state’s attorney’s office after a student in December told a DCF social worker that he’d been beaten and robbed by other high school students.
On Monday, Judge Nuala Droney agreed to continue the cases against Superintendent Brian Levesque, high school Principal Jeffrey Theodoss and Assistant Principal Tatiana Patten, all charged with failing to report suspected abuse according to the state’s mandated reporter law.
The administrators’ attorneys say their cases should be dismissed, noting no students were seriously injured. They say the administrators will not file for the state’s accelerated rehabilitation program, or AR, which would dismiss the charges against them after serving a period of probation, and would rather fight the cases before a jury.
The administrators remain on paid leave. Levesque fired Fish in October, a few days after receiving emails containing videos of a classroom fight filmed by students.
Multiple students told police they looked up to Fish and considered him a mentor. Police said the fighting left one student with mental trauma and another with a bloody nose. Another student vomited into a trash can as a result of the fighting, police said.
Chinigo says it’s too early to determine whether Fish, who does not have a previous criminal record, would apply for AR. Chinigo told Hadden that Fish had complied with bail conditions. He previously noted that Fish had attended counseling sessions required by the Bail Commission.