All charges dropped against former Assistant Principal of St. Patrick’s Interparish School
Staff report
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – All charges have been dropped against Ryan Clemens, former Assistant Principal of St. Patrick’s Interparish School; he was previously facing three counts of child neglect, two counts of failing to report suspected child abuse, one count of destroying evidence, one count of making an inaccurate report, and one count of failing to report lewd conduct by an authority figure.
According to documents filed in the case, Clemens had been employed by the school for about 4.5 years and was Athletic Director before being promoted to Assistant Principal about 18 months ago. When he became Assistant Principal, Christopher Chell became Athletic Director.
On February 20, a female 7th-grader at the school reported to Clemens that Chell had made inappropriate comments to another girl that made her uncomfortable. Specifically, the girl said, Chell had told the other girl that he could be her “secret boyfriend,” but they would have to keep it a secret and could not be “open” about the “relationship.”
Clemens allegedly decided to investigate the report himself without notifying either law enforcement or the Department of Children and Families (DCF). Clemens reportedly held a closed-door meeting with Chell and the victim, during which Chell said the report was not true and Clemens told the girl that he believed Chell, “one hundred percent.”
On February 23, Clemens reported the February 20 incident to DCF, including his conclusion that there had been no wrongdoing by Chell.
A few days after Clemens first learned about Chell’s alleged behavior, three female 6th-graders requested a meeting with Clemens, and each of the girls reportedly said that Chell had behaved inappropriately with them, ranging from inappropriate statements to inappropriate touching. Clemens allegedly did nothing to protect the girls from Chell after this meeting and did not report this to DCF or law enforcement until after Chell was arrested; another girl was allegedly victimized by Chell during school hours the day after the three girls met with Clemens.
Clemens reportedly told the detective that he had seen written communications in Chell’s office that contained evidence relating to the case, but he said he threw away this evidence after Chell was fired.
State Attorney Brian Kramer told Alachua Chronicle that the mandatory reporting statute does not specify the time frame in which suspected abuse must be reported. Because of this, he said, “The evidence of the amount of delay was insufficient to warrant charges under the statute.”
Clemens’ attorney and St. Patrick’s Interparish School have not yet responded to our requests for comment.
Chell’s case is reportedly still under investigation, and Clemens is expected to be a witness in that case.
The Feds told them not to file charges 😕.. thats how far they go to protect churches.. meanwhile yall hung up on bathrooms and drag shows.. 😒.. the true groomers show up every Sunday buuuuut that goes against the narrative 😒 which is all you care about anyways
“Free Speech” is fine, lying isn’t. Here’s the real priority for the “Feds”.
https://www.newsweek.com/fbi-memo-catholics-radical-traditional-leaked-1780379
That’s why he was smirking in his mugshot…his lawyer already told him he would get off on a technicality. Now watch him turn on his buddy who he was previously protecting…what a snake…
Just know that the public knows what you did was wrong and disgusting. Good luck ever getting another teaching job, Clemens
You have no idea what you are talking about and sound like a fool with all of your ‘factual’ assumptions, truly. Get a life and consider that sometimes you don’t know everything and therefore should not speak about something you are not involved in or of witness to.
The brand new commenter names always come out in numbers to support their criminal-turned-victim. You people are like clockwork.
Reading the court docs proves what he did was totally wrong, although not criminally prosecutable. The reporting also says he plans to testify in Chell’s case. What assumption irritated you so much?
I went to St Patrick’s as a child and never felt safe there either. I have family members who were taken advantage of by members of the parish. Born and bred here in Gainesville, so YOU should do YOUR research.
It’s always a cover up with these private schools.
Actually, public school coverups are a lot more common.
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/protecting-children-from-sexual-abuse/202305/educator-sexual-misconduct-remains-prevalent-in
https://www.yahoo.com/news/judge-rules-loudoun-county-teen-131413442.html
What was he going to do wait for the girls to graduate then report it? BullSh– ALARM detected. Another move by the SAO to cover up and make it go away.
I agree that this person should never be allowed to teach again. What a travesty that he gets off on a technicality when clearly, he didn’t protect the students but his best friend. I hope he is never hired again as a teacher or administrator.
His wife is a teacher at St. Pat’s and she was taunting how her husband got off and all charges were dropped. His aunt, who is a mental health counselor was doing the same thing. How is this justice for the young girl that was molested?
You can always count on them to do the classy, dignified thing.
Wow… why didn’t you say something when you heard his wife or his aunt taunting? Because your a keyboard warrior with nothing better to do then anonymously go on the internet and talk s*** about someone you claim to know. You should really work on that detective work Nancy Drew because you really have no idea what actually happened.
You should be disgusted with the PE teacher, not Clemens. The latter didn’t hear of any criminal acts, but he reported it to DCF anyway.
These comments are comical. I love that everyone comes on these news articles and they all of a sudden become, the victims, detectives, and personally know the person at question all at once….not one person on here actually has any facts or states any facts. You read a bunch of stuff written to draw people in or news shows looking for ratings and become experts.👎🏻👎🏻
Uh, the article, which I commend the AC for writing in a very fact-based manner, is full of facts. Therefore there are a lot of ‘facts’ that “everyone” has.
Do you have fact genie that no-one knows about that you can share with us?
I hope the fired him! He didn’t protect the girls.
As a parent, I am commenting to express my unwavering support and deep appreciation for Mr. Clemens! I have witnessed firsthand his commitment to the safety and well-being of our children and couldn’t be more grateful for him. There are so many misconstrued comments in the media, it’s actually sickening!!! Mr. Clemens has gone above and beyond for St. Patrick’s and worked tirelessly to create a safe and nurturing environment for our children. I am eternally grateful for the effort and unwavering dedication of Mr. Clemens. What is not being portrayed in the media is the fact that Mr. Clemens did in fact report, day 1, to his superior, who at the time was Mr. Acosta, he also reported to the Deacon as well. Let’s not report on that though…clearly the DA pulled phone records to show that Clemens reported not only to DCF but to others ABOVE HIM. You want to talk about the statutes on the reporting, what about the so called tampering with evidence?? If that actually happened why wouldn’t the DA at least charge him with that? Use your brain people!!! This is a situation in which the detective clearly had an agenda and wanted to be the hero. You people hiding behind your keyboards have no idea what you are talking about!!
As a grandparent of 2 kids at this school I think this is an injustice. He acted but it was not quick enough to allow it not to happen again. I would “guess” he had the charges dropped because he is a “cooperating” witness for the prosecution at this point. It would be real crime is he is ever allowed to work with children again.
Exactly! You would “guess” because you don’t know the facts! The whole narrative the investigator tried to spin was that he was covering for Chell because they were such good friends, so why would they drop the charges if that’s the case? If the prosecution wanted him to testify all along then why did they even arrest Clemens in the first place? The whole thing makes no sense! Quick enough is not reporting to his superior the day it was reported to him??? Why didn’t Mr. Acosta, who was the acting principal, not report it then? Clearly the DA was smarter than the detective. You actually think that they would just drop the case if there was any evidence what so ever!? EVERY SINGLE CHARGE WAS DROPPED! That screams to me that it was bogus!
Sounds like another employee of the office commenting here based on the tone and “you don’t know” … maybe if people don’t know you should have spoken up before the charges were dropped and you were tagged from publicá-los speaking right? Makes me sick 🤢
I bet money not one of those kids is female or you’d think different. But of course, women like you breed subservient women who allow abuse to happen. You should not be allowed to have kids.
All the victims were girls and as young as 10 years old from the police reports
You should use your brains! Clemons didn’t do enough! Nobody did enough! Until it’s your child! From: Another Parent who’s hiding behind the keyboard just like you!
Or he want charged so he testify fully against his buddy… this was a travesty of Justice they both should be rotting in Jail!
Apparently the reporting statute needs to be amended, to set a timeframe. Doh 😳
Ah yes. See what the kids are learning from us…adults; sadly, they do not stand a chance.
you’d be surprised what the kids came home and told!
Time for civil suit. Beat them at their own game.
That’s how they got OJ, but for real he is guilty of negligence at the minimum tampering of evidence and got a plea deal that all his office friends are coming on here and defending him. But yeah parents should trust their kids their when staff like this think this is ok??? Yeah right! You know there has to be more to the story and more cover ups to be revealed when trial hits.
Speaking of terrible crimes against children, Hopefully this means we are getting close to finding out about what is going on at Santa Fe high school.
I don’t know Clemens, but I wondered about the validity of the case from the start. It seemed to be a stretch to me because, as near as I can tell, he acted as soon as he believed that there was truth in the story that the girls told. False accusations do occur and he had a duty to get the facts before acting. It really comes down to what he believed and, in the end, he reported within a very few days. As an impartial observer, I can’t really see where he did anything wrong.
The case against Chelle isn’t perfect either. Although his behaviour is creepy, I haven’t read of any evidence where physical contact necessarily crossed the line into lewd behaviour. As the parent of a girl, I would want Chelle fired, but we will have to hear the evidence at trial to know if this case really has legs. It sounds weak, so far. If I were the DA, I’d probably try to strike a deal that makes sure he doesn’t ever teach again.
You sound like a molester yourself, Kyle. As a mandatory reporter, Clemens had a duty to report as soon as the accusations were made, not “as soon as he believed that there was truth in the story”.
It was also inappropriate for him to investigate on his own, and even more inappropriate to interview the perp and the victim at the same time, in the same room, and then tell the victim he didn’t believe her.
What Chelle is alleged to have done goes far beyond what any normal person would call as just “creepy”. I’m sure he believed, just as you do, that he’d never be caught, but hopefully you’ll join him in a cell very soon.
Nonsense, so called”Gainesville Dad”. I bet you would have been one of those lynch mob people in the 1800s. String ’em up now and save the trial money.
I successfully raised my kids to adulthood and, like any normal dad, I love my kids very much. Mine are all young adults, now and doing just fine, thank you.
Your insinuation is wrong, unhelpful and typical of the low IQ, morons, like yourself, that use name calling and character assassination to shut down discussions. Did you feel very superior as you were trying to dominate the discussion? I bet you hate it when people do that to you, but you sure like to serve it up to others, don’t ya? I feel sorry for your children. Please do better.
Instead of rushing to judgement, I want to understand what caused a given incident. I kind of pretend that I am on the jury. Can I, as a reasonable person, understand why Clemens hesitated? I don’t know what the mandatory reporting requirements are in this kind of case, but I presume that not every rumor gets reported. There has to be some credible threshold where below that is just improbable. I think this case was well over the threshold, but it took Clemens a few days to figure it out. However, he did report it once he believed that it could be true. If I was Clemens and really believed that the accusation might not be true, I can see where he might want a little more evidence, too.
I do agree that what was absolutely wrong was putting the accusor/victim in a face to face meeting with the accused. That should never have happened and is unbelievably bad judgement, if the stories are true. For that reason alone, he should have been instantly fired and the school should pay for counseling for the girl.
As for Chelle, I still don’t think it’s a slam dunk case. He seems to have uttered a lot of inappropriate comments. However, we have not heard Chelle’s explanation or context. Also, there was no accusation of explicit sexual dialog. There has not been any accusation of lewd photos sent or solicited. I have not read that he propositioned any of the kids. He may have touched them inappropriately, but we don’t know enough yet to say for sure. There’s just not a lot of direct evidence here, so far.
I’m not defending Chelle’s actions here. Personally, I suspect that he was grooming these girls. I wouldn’t have wanted my daughter to be around him. I just don’t know if there’s enough evidence to convict him, is all that I’m saying.
Clemens took the girl in a closed door room with her abuser… That alone is disgusting and he should never be around children again. He told this girl she’s lying, he believed Chell 100%. That is not protection.
Exactly.
The girl’s parents reported the incident to Clemons who in return had a meeting with the girl and Chell without her parents present. Make it make sense!
It’s not up to him to decide if the accusations were false! That would be the job of the authorities. He was to report the accusations immediately. As well as the other teachers who did nothing!
Go read the case files in the Dockets against him from 4/26 there is plenty of words and touches that are defined grooming and abuse. If it was your daughter maybe you feel different right?!
That’s not the only school in town who allows that especially on the east side of town school board keeps it quiet and protect there own
Even with video with the teacher putting hands on student the school board and principal will believe the teacher and allow the teacher to continue to work facts east side of town elementary school
I think it’s worth noting that Clemens was never officially charged with any wrongdoing, and if he had been officially charged there would have been an arraignment. Remember that being arrested does not automatically imply guilt.
The decision by the District Attorney’s office not to pursue the case indicates that they did not believe there was sufficient evidence to support it.
The legal system follows a process once someone is arrested and accused of something. If the District Attorney finds evidence that nothing criminal happened, they won’t try to prosecute. This is one of the great things about our judicial system – it ensures that individuals are not unjustly prosecuted. While not perfect there is a process that is in place for a reason and being “innocent until proven guilty” is so we don’t have “witch hunts” and persecute people who are innocent. I think we need to all realize that there’s always more to the story than what the media puts out and the sensationalist stories is what they crave which if you notice, they reported on Clemens being arrested with 5 minutes but it took 6-7 hours before anyone reported his charges being dropped.
In our society, the principle of “innocent until proven guilty” is a cornerstone of justice. It is disheartening to witness individuals making derogatory remarks about someone who has been cleared of all charges, including tampering with evidence.
In approaching such situations, it is essential to approach them with empathy and respect for all parties involved. Making assumptions or engaging in negative comments without access to all the facts can be unfair and unjust.
Let us strive to cultivate a culture of understanding and fairness, where individuals are not subjected to unwarranted criticism or condemnation.
There’s a big difference between ‘being cleared of all charges’ and everyone thinking he actually did the right thing after seeing all the evidence. He got off on a technical point of the law.
As far as having definite standards, we’re talking about administrators and teachers at a private Catholic school, not a bunch of hobos at an AA meeting who just need love and understanding.
Biden out here sniffing and groping little kids on network tv and y’all seem to be a ok with it. His nasty pervert son too.
I’ve never commented on here before but this is literally an OUTRAGE. Are you kidding me????
Kramer raggedy af for that one😒