A high-powered attorney from Massachusetts will lead the investigation into the Concord School District’s handling of reports made in 2014 and 2018 against teacher Howie Leung.
A contract with Djuna Perkins, founder of DP Law and former prosecutor and chief of the Boston District Attorney’s Domestic Violence Unit, was approved unanimously by board members Monday night. Board officials said Perkins will begin her investigation immediately and she is expected to wrap up around mid-July.
Perkins, according to DP Law’s website, is one “the most sought-out sexual misconduct and discrimination investigators” in Massachusetts.
The board also announced that it will be contracting with Stephen Bennett of Wadleigh, Starr & Peters, who specializes in municipal, education, labor and employment law, according to his firm’s website.
Bennett, who formerly served as the lead attorney for the city of Nashua, will serve as a liaison between the board and Perkins. School board members said having a liaison will keep the investigation independent, as Bennett will be responsible for scheduling interviews, retrieving documents and passing along information between the board and Perkins.
The decision ends speculation about who would be leading the investigation into whether school administrators acted appropriately after student Ana Goble was suspended from school by Tom Sica, then principal of Rundlett, after expressing concerns about Leung’s conduct with her classmates. The investigation will also encompass the internal investigation by the district after three students reported seeing Leung kiss a student in a car in 2018.
Concord High School Principal Tom Sica, who did not attend graduation, is on paid administrative leave while the investigation is under way.
Teacher Howie Leung is awaiting trial on rape charges in Massachusetts after prosecutors said he repeatedly sexually abused a former Concord middle school student around the same time Goble spoke up. Leung is accused of assaulting the student in and around Rundlett Middle School and at a summer program in Massachusetts following police investigations in both states.
The board announced its intentions to hire an investigator days before CHS’s graduation on June 15. A week later, attorney Robin Melone, also of Wadleigh, Starr & Peters began introducing herself to Goble’s attorney and police as being retained by the Concord School Board.
School Board Vice President Tom Croteau said Melone had worked with the district in the past and the board had a contract prepared for her.
“We thought, she already knows certain people, she already knows the district, she has great credentials, we thought why not just have her take off and do it?” Croteau said.
But after it came to the board’s attention that Melone had represented sex offender Owen Labrie before the state Supreme Court, the board backed out and the contact was never executed, he said.
“We probably thought it wouldn’t sit right,” he said.
Perkins and Bennett will be retained at $245 and $250 an hour, respectively.
Multiple members of the community commented on the district’s handling of past and current reports of misconduct against Leung. Read more about that in Wednesday’s Monitor.