WEBVTT
1
00:00:20.440 --> 00:00:23.960
Hey everyone, and welcome back to Exposed Scandalous Files of
2
00:00:24.000 --> 00:00:27.440
the Elite. I'm your host, Jim Chapman, and today I
3
00:00:27.519 --> 00:00:32.479
am continuing the Bad Teachers state specific series. Today I'm
4
00:00:32.520 --> 00:00:36.960
taking you to North Carolina, home of Michael Jordan by
5
00:00:37.000 --> 00:00:41.039
the way, and we're going to start in Moxville, North
6
00:00:41.079 --> 00:00:42.560
Carolina for this one.
7
00:00:42.799 --> 00:00:44.719
At Davy High School.
8
00:00:44.799 --> 00:00:48.759
When on November twenty ninth of twenty sixteen, and I
9
00:00:48.840 --> 00:00:53.039
want you to imagine this, a basketball game ends, the
10
00:00:53.159 --> 00:00:57.000
gym lights are still on, and parents are filing out
11
00:00:57.119 --> 00:01:00.600
and in the parking lot, some students notice something that
12
00:01:00.840 --> 00:01:05.120
stops them cold in their tracks when they see their teacher,
13
00:01:05.640 --> 00:01:11.359
Jessica Welch Green, a very attractive brunette twenty seven years old,
14
00:01:12.040 --> 00:01:16.840
absolutely locked in a passionate kiss with a seventeen year
15
00:01:16.879 --> 00:01:17.799
old male student.
16
00:01:18.599 --> 00:01:20.040
Not a hug, not.
17
00:01:20.079 --> 00:01:23.280
A friendly peck, though that of course would not be
18
00:01:23.359 --> 00:01:28.640
any more appropriate, but a full on, open mouth kiss
19
00:01:28.719 --> 00:01:32.159
right there in public. Now, this single moment would crack
20
00:01:32.280 --> 00:01:36.280
open one of the most disturbing teacher student sex cases
21
00:01:36.400 --> 00:01:40.439
in North Carolina history. So let's get into it, and
22
00:01:40.480 --> 00:01:45.000
I'm going to start in nineteen eighty nine in Forsyth County,
23
00:01:45.159 --> 00:01:50.120
North Carolina, where Jessica Green was born. She grew up
24
00:01:50.200 --> 00:01:54.159
in a very stable, supportive, church going family, and growing
25
00:01:54.239 --> 00:01:57.519
up she seemed like the all American girl. She was
26
00:01:57.840 --> 00:02:02.239
especially great with kids. During her teenage years, she was
27
00:02:02.280 --> 00:02:06.439
a babysitter. She was even a nanny for several people,
28
00:02:06.560 --> 00:02:12.280
and she gained a reputation for being responsible and trustworthy,
29
00:02:12.439 --> 00:02:16.240
a girl that was going places. Now after high school,
30
00:02:16.319 --> 00:02:20.439
she would attend and graduate from Salem College. This is
31
00:02:20.479 --> 00:02:24.840
in Winston Salem, North Carolina, and she was smart three
32
00:02:24.960 --> 00:02:30.120
point eight gpa upon her graduation. So in twenty fourteen,
33
00:02:30.560 --> 00:02:35.000
she gets married, and it's not what you would describe
34
00:02:35.199 --> 00:02:39.479
as a great marriage. She would say later in court
35
00:02:39.560 --> 00:02:43.759
records that the marriage would quickly become abusive. Her new
36
00:02:43.840 --> 00:02:48.080
husband had some pretty serious drug and alcohol issues and
37
00:02:48.319 --> 00:02:53.800
was both verbally and physically violent, she would allege. She said,
38
00:02:53.840 --> 00:02:56.599
he would use her as a punching bag. He would
39
00:02:56.639 --> 00:03:00.639
call her ugly, stupid, and although she would keep this
40
00:03:00.800 --> 00:03:05.280
abuse secret from most people, she was going through it
41
00:03:05.560 --> 00:03:09.520
at home, according to her. Now, in twenty fifteen, she
42
00:03:09.759 --> 00:03:14.400
has a young daughter, and according to Jessica, she struggled
43
00:03:14.680 --> 00:03:19.240
pretty hard after her pregnancy with postpartum depression.
44
00:03:19.439 --> 00:03:21.000
She also would.
45
00:03:20.719 --> 00:03:25.159
Mismanage her diabetes. She would lose a bunch of weight.
46
00:03:25.319 --> 00:03:30.159
She would completely isolate herself from people and appeared very depressed.
47
00:03:30.240 --> 00:03:34.840
Now by twenty sixteen, things would start looking up for her.
48
00:03:34.960 --> 00:03:38.039
She would land a job as an English.
49
00:03:37.599 --> 00:03:42.360
Teacher at Davy High School, and once she started there,
50
00:03:42.719 --> 00:03:46.960
she would quickly become one of the most popular teachers
51
00:03:47.120 --> 00:03:48.039
at that school.
52
00:03:48.280 --> 00:03:50.879
The students absolutely loved her.
53
00:03:51.280 --> 00:03:55.280
And her teaching style was very unique. She was very
54
00:03:55.439 --> 00:03:59.960
highly regarded from the staff as well. On paper, jess
55
00:04:00.039 --> 00:04:04.240
Ysica seemed like the perfect teacher that every parent would
56
00:04:04.319 --> 00:04:08.560
dream of. So everything explodes in November of twenty sixteen. Now,
57
00:04:08.599 --> 00:04:13.960
according to court documents, this is when the inappropriate contact starts.
58
00:04:14.159 --> 00:04:17.600
A seventeen year old boy, which I'm going to refer
59
00:04:17.720 --> 00:04:22.800
to as Student A, who was in Jessica's English class.
60
00:04:23.360 --> 00:04:25.000
They start texting.
61
00:04:25.040 --> 00:04:30.600
And texting a lot, and those texts quickly turn sexual,
62
00:04:30.720 --> 00:04:36.519
which would be proven later with screenshots. Then a physical
63
00:04:36.600 --> 00:04:42.720
relationship starts. The investigation would later document at least three
64
00:04:42.800 --> 00:04:47.600
separate acts of full on intercourse between the twenty seven
65
00:04:47.680 --> 00:04:51.040
year old teacher and the seventeen year old student. These
66
00:04:51.199 --> 00:04:56.040
instances would occur on school property in her car, and
67
00:04:56.079 --> 00:04:59.519
she would also later admit to performing oral sex on
68
00:04:59.600 --> 00:05:03.720
this sty at least twice. So, as I told you
69
00:05:03.759 --> 00:05:06.680
at the start of this one November twenty ninth, twenty
70
00:05:06.720 --> 00:05:12.120
sixteen would change everything for her when multiple students would
71
00:05:12.160 --> 00:05:16.120
catch her and this student making out in that basketball
72
00:05:16.319 --> 00:05:20.199
parking lot, and those students would immediately report what they
73
00:05:20.319 --> 00:05:25.360
saw to the school the SRO or school resource officer. Now,
74
00:05:25.360 --> 00:05:28.480
when the students reported this, they also reported that this
75
00:05:28.639 --> 00:05:31.759
seventeen year old teen had been bragging to them that
76
00:05:31.879 --> 00:05:35.319
he and Green were in a sexual relationship and had
77
00:05:35.399 --> 00:05:40.000
actually gone on dates together, both dinner dates and movie dates.
78
00:05:40.360 --> 00:05:43.439
They also told that SRO that the teen had been
79
00:05:43.560 --> 00:05:47.759
dating this teacher for only a couple of weeks, but
80
00:05:47.879 --> 00:05:52.639
had told these other students that he had sex with
81
00:05:53.079 --> 00:05:56.600
Jessica in her vehicle in the driveway of a house
82
00:05:56.720 --> 00:06:00.319
that was actually for sale. He had also told these
83
00:06:00.360 --> 00:06:05.199
other students that after graduation they planned to be together
84
00:06:05.759 --> 00:06:09.480
and get married. So, of course the SRO he reports
85
00:06:09.560 --> 00:06:14.079
all of this to the principal and an investigation officially starts.
86
00:06:14.199 --> 00:06:18.399
On December two of twenty sixteen. In that very same day,
87
00:06:18.639 --> 00:06:23.360
English teacher Jessica Green is suspended from teaching. Now the
88
00:06:23.759 --> 00:06:28.600
Davy County Sheriff's office, they move pretty fast. They start
89
00:06:28.600 --> 00:06:32.959
interviewing this seventeen year old student. The student admits to
90
00:06:33.079 --> 00:06:38.160
this relationship. He confirmed everything the students, the other students
91
00:06:38.160 --> 00:06:41.600
had already told the SRO of that school. And they
92
00:06:41.639 --> 00:06:46.160
also seize his phone which contained just a ton of
93
00:06:46.199 --> 00:06:50.720
evidence text messages, pictures, et cetera. So now it was
94
00:06:50.759 --> 00:06:54.800
time to talk to Jessica Green. And initially she denies
95
00:06:55.079 --> 00:06:59.519
intercourse with this student, but she does admit to performing
96
00:06:59.720 --> 00:07:03.519
oral sex on the student on two occasions, though she
97
00:07:03.759 --> 00:07:09.399
insisted it never happened on campus, although evidence.
98
00:07:08.920 --> 00:07:11.639
Police have recovered had said otherwise.
99
00:07:12.160 --> 00:07:15.519
So it is on December thirteenth of twenty sixteen that
100
00:07:15.680 --> 00:07:20.519
twenty seven year old Jessica Welch Green is arrested in
101
00:07:20.639 --> 00:07:24.879
charge with three counts of sexual activity with a student.
102
00:07:24.959 --> 00:07:28.079
And it's important to note that although the consent age
103
00:07:28.279 --> 00:07:32.240
in North Carolina is sixteen, the fact that she is
104
00:07:32.319 --> 00:07:36.199
a teacher and therefore a person of authority like a
105
00:07:36.240 --> 00:07:41.759
police officer or really anybody else in a position of
106
00:07:41.800 --> 00:07:46.519
authority over such a young person. It's what opened the
107
00:07:46.680 --> 00:07:51.040
door to these charges, so it didn't matter that he
108
00:07:51.160 --> 00:07:52.560
was consenting to all of this.
109
00:07:53.040 --> 00:07:53.720
She goes to.
110
00:07:53.839 --> 00:07:57.839
Jail, she bonds out on a fifteen thousand dollars bond,
111
00:07:58.319 --> 00:08:01.959
and it's not long before the news is just all
112
00:08:02.040 --> 00:08:05.399
over the state, then all over the country.
113
00:08:05.680 --> 00:08:07.560
On this one, everybody picks it up.
114
00:08:08.079 --> 00:08:12.439
So fast forward to September twenty fifth of twenty seventeen
115
00:08:12.959 --> 00:08:16.160
and Jessica Green, who is by this time twenty eight,
116
00:08:16.720 --> 00:08:19.560
She shows up to a hearing and she does what
117
00:08:19.600 --> 00:08:20.120
they all do.
118
00:08:20.519 --> 00:08:21.600
She took a plea deal.
119
00:08:21.879 --> 00:08:25.480
In her attorney's statement to the judge, he describes his
120
00:08:25.680 --> 00:08:30.839
client as very depressed, very unhappy, and very unlikely to reoffend.
121
00:08:31.399 --> 00:08:35.440
She then pleads no contests to the charges, and the
122
00:08:35.600 --> 00:08:39.919
judge sentences her to two years in prison, but he
123
00:08:40.120 --> 00:08:46.000
suspends that entire sentence. She gets thirty six months probation,
124
00:08:46.720 --> 00:08:50.759
and she must register as a sex offender for thirty
125
00:08:50.840 --> 00:08:55.159
years now. One interesting aspect of her sentence was that
126
00:08:55.200 --> 00:08:59.759
she would also have to consent to warrantless searches of
127
00:08:59.799 --> 00:09:04.240
her phone and computer devices for life. I'm not saying
128
00:09:04.279 --> 00:09:08.120
that's not deserving, but that's interesting. It's the first time
129
00:09:08.279 --> 00:09:11.159
I've seen that. I didn't even know that was a thing.
130
00:09:11.320 --> 00:09:14.840
To be honest, for the rest of her life, someone
131
00:09:14.879 --> 00:09:17.600
from the court or a police officer can just show
132
00:09:17.639 --> 00:09:20.159
up at her house and say, let me see your phone,
133
00:09:20.480 --> 00:09:22.399
and she's got to turn it over right there let
134
00:09:22.440 --> 00:09:26.240
them search it. She was also under a no contact
135
00:09:26.360 --> 00:09:30.039
order with anyone under the age of eighteen outside of
136
00:09:30.039 --> 00:09:33.919
her daughter, and that's pretty common when you get sentenced
137
00:09:33.919 --> 00:09:36.639
to these cases. But I mean, let's be honest, she
138
00:09:36.679 --> 00:09:40.240
got off pretty easy. But this story ain't over yet
139
00:09:40.519 --> 00:09:45.000
for Jessica Green because in twenty eighteen. In twenty nineteen,
140
00:09:45.399 --> 00:09:49.559
her probation officer caught her dropping her daughter off at
141
00:09:49.600 --> 00:09:54.159
a local dance studio and that violated the no contact
142
00:09:54.320 --> 00:09:57.240
under eighteen order because there were a lot of kids
143
00:09:57.279 --> 00:10:01.360
there under the age of eighteen. But even worse, it's
144
00:10:01.519 --> 00:10:07.960
discovered that Jessica had created sixteen social media accounts under
145
00:10:08.080 --> 00:10:14.480
aliases that she never reported to her probation officer as required,
146
00:10:14.600 --> 00:10:19.840
with some accounts being described as promiscuous activity. I don't
147
00:10:19.840 --> 00:10:22.840
know if that's an OnlyFans or something, but it doesn't
148
00:10:22.840 --> 00:10:27.639
really specify. I'm speculating there. This prompted the district attorney
149
00:10:27.799 --> 00:10:32.279
to say she was not taking her probation seriously. So
150
00:10:32.440 --> 00:10:36.279
in twenty twenty she ends up back in front of
151
00:10:36.360 --> 00:10:40.440
a judge and she gets sentenced to three months in
152
00:10:40.639 --> 00:11:07.320
jail for those violations. So that's her story. In October
153
00:11:07.399 --> 00:11:12.679
twenty nineteen, high ranking Livingston Parish Sheriff's Office deputy Dennis
154
00:11:12.720 --> 00:11:18.000
Perkins and his wife Cynthia were arrested and subsequently convicted
155
00:11:18.159 --> 00:11:26.759
of over one hundred and fifty sex crimes involving miners.
156
00:11:28.080 --> 00:11:34.360
During the investigation into these crimes, an eighteen minute video surfaced.
157
00:11:34.559 --> 00:11:39.000
This video would show Dennis Perkins and another woman, initially
158
00:11:39.080 --> 00:11:44.519
thought to be Cynthia, performing sex acts on a seemingly unconscious,
159
00:11:44.720 --> 00:11:53.080
unidentified female. Further investigation would reveal that the female performing
160
00:11:53.120 --> 00:11:57.720
those sex acts was a popular Livingston Parish realtor by
161
00:11:57.720 --> 00:12:07.279
the name of Melanie Carton. In twenty twenty, Curtin was arrested,
162
00:12:07.399 --> 00:12:11.519
and in December of twenty twenty one, curtain was convicted
163
00:12:11.720 --> 00:12:16.440
and sentenced to life in prison for aggravated rape plus
164
00:12:16.879 --> 00:12:23.519
five years for video voyeurism. However, in twenty twenty three,
165
00:12:23.519 --> 00:12:27.320
that case was thrown out after an appeals court ruled
166
00:12:27.360 --> 00:12:32.799
that not only did the evidence admitted unfairly prejudiced Melanie Curtain,
167
00:12:33.159 --> 00:12:37.120
but also ruled that evidence not allowed in during that
168
00:12:37.320 --> 00:12:41.600
trial prevented Curtain from mounting a proper defense.
169
00:12:45.200 --> 00:12:46.639
Despite this ruling.
170
00:12:46.440 --> 00:12:50.799
The Louisiana Attorney General's Office continued to pursue the case
171
00:12:51.080 --> 00:12:55.799
under reduced charges of third degree rape in video voyeurism.
172
00:12:56.240 --> 00:13:00.440
On March seventeenth, twenty twenty six, after a re trial
173
00:13:00.600 --> 00:13:06.039
on those reduced charges, Curtain was found not guilty unanimously
174
00:13:06.519 --> 00:13:08.799
by a twelve person jury.
175
00:13:09.120 --> 00:13:10.480
What happened in this case?
176
00:13:10.799 --> 00:13:14.919
How can a person go from being unanimously convicted to
177
00:13:15.159 --> 00:13:19.399
life in prison to being found not guilty just three
178
00:13:19.480 --> 00:13:25.080
years later unanimously by a jury in the same community.
179
00:13:25.559 --> 00:13:29.039
In this series, I will bring you inside the courtroom
180
00:13:29.200 --> 00:13:33.679
and cover the case exactly how it was presented in court.
181
00:13:34.039 --> 00:13:37.159
I'll give you the backstory of what led up to
182
00:13:37.279 --> 00:13:43.279
the initial investigation into Melanie Curtain, and let you decide
183
00:13:43.720 --> 00:13:49.720
guilt or innocence. This is eighteen minutes The Trials of
184
00:13:49.799 --> 00:14:10.200
Melanie Carton Unexposed Investigates podcast docuseries. We'll move on to
185
00:14:10.279 --> 00:14:13.600
the next one and that brings me to rocky Mount,
186
00:14:13.759 --> 00:14:14.679
North Carolina.
187
00:14:15.080 --> 00:14:16.200
I'm gonna tell you about a.
188
00:14:16.120 --> 00:14:20.879
Twenty five year old, smart, local teacher who threw it
189
00:14:21.000 --> 00:14:24.080
all away when she got arrested for having sex with
190
00:14:24.279 --> 00:14:28.799
three male students, two seventeen year olds and a sixteen
191
00:14:28.879 --> 00:14:33.360
year old, all off campus. Her name was Aaron mcculloffe,
192
00:14:33.360 --> 00:14:36.480
and she was born and raised in Rocky Mount, North
193
00:14:36.480 --> 00:14:39.519
Carolina and Rocky Mount. When I researched it, I was
194
00:14:39.559 --> 00:14:44.679
pretty surprised. It's a rather large city, sixty thousand residents,
195
00:14:44.759 --> 00:14:49.080
so Aaron fits right in there. She graduates from high
196
00:14:49.120 --> 00:14:54.679
school in twenty ten, very popular, very pretty. In college,
197
00:14:54.720 --> 00:14:59.960
she is your typical sorority girl. She's known as extremely small.
198
00:15:00.240 --> 00:15:04.080
She even joined the math club in college, one of
199
00:15:04.159 --> 00:15:07.840
my weakest subjects, and to those that knew her, she
200
00:15:08.159 --> 00:15:11.679
was very straight laced, or at least she appeared to be.
201
00:15:12.200 --> 00:15:16.840
So she graduates in math, that was her major, and
202
00:15:16.919 --> 00:15:21.320
she gets her teaching credentials in August of twenty sixteen,
203
00:15:22.000 --> 00:15:25.960
just nine months before everything I'm about to tell you
204
00:15:25.960 --> 00:15:30.080
about took place. She lands a job at Rocky Mount
205
00:15:30.200 --> 00:15:33.639
Prep School, which is a charter school in what's done
206
00:15:33.679 --> 00:15:37.799
as Nash County, and she's teaching high school math. And
207
00:15:37.879 --> 00:15:41.039
at this point she is twenty four years old, very
208
00:15:41.080 --> 00:15:45.679
well liked, very trusted, considered a professional. The whole nine
209
00:15:46.279 --> 00:15:50.840
nobody saw what was coming or did they well never know,
210
00:15:51.159 --> 00:15:55.799
because that school shut their doors pretty quickly after this incident.
211
00:15:55.919 --> 00:15:59.399
So Rocky Mountain Prep was a nice little charter school.
212
00:15:59.440 --> 00:16:02.120
A guy named Todd Popkin was the head of that
213
00:16:02.159 --> 00:16:05.600
school at the time, and he actually hired Aaron in
214
00:16:05.679 --> 00:16:11.159
August of twenty sixteen. Now, by May fourth of twenty seventeen, she.
215
00:16:11.320 --> 00:16:12.200
Was out of a job.
216
00:16:12.879 --> 00:16:17.039
The very next day, school administrators they contact police and
217
00:16:17.120 --> 00:16:21.039
they let them know a complaint came in regarding inappropriate
218
00:16:21.080 --> 00:16:26.480
relationships with Aaron mccauliffe and some students. Plural police start
219
00:16:26.559 --> 00:16:30.559
investigating and they interview faculty, they interview a whole bunch
220
00:16:30.600 --> 00:16:35.399
of students, and what they discover is these allegations involved
221
00:16:35.440 --> 00:16:39.720
three male students who were all students at Rocky Mountain Prep.
222
00:16:40.080 --> 00:16:42.919
And as I said, two of those are seventeen year olds.
223
00:16:43.039 --> 00:16:45.559
One of those was a sixteen year old. Now, every
224
00:16:45.600 --> 00:16:49.080
single one of these encounters occurred off campus, from what
225
00:16:49.159 --> 00:16:52.159
I understand, and that's actually more of a key point
226
00:16:52.440 --> 00:16:56.200
than you may think. She wasn't dumb enough to do
227
00:16:56.519 --> 00:17:01.240
any of these acts on campus, which meant likely she
228
00:17:01.399 --> 00:17:04.920
knew what she was doing was illegal. That would make
229
00:17:04.960 --> 00:17:07.480
it pretty hard for her to hide behind the well.
230
00:17:07.599 --> 00:17:10.319
The concent age was sixteen, and I thought, because they
231
00:17:10.319 --> 00:17:13.119
were sixteen, if they consented to having sex, there was
232
00:17:13.160 --> 00:17:15.519
nothing wrong with that. I didn't know that I was
233
00:17:15.599 --> 00:17:19.839
a teacher and that I could not engage in sex.
234
00:17:19.599 --> 00:17:20.440
With these people.
235
00:17:21.319 --> 00:17:25.039
She can't use that defense because she was intentionally doing
236
00:17:25.079 --> 00:17:28.960
this off campus. She knew her role as a teacher
237
00:17:29.200 --> 00:17:33.559
made it illegal. So by June eighth of twenty seventeen,
238
00:17:34.079 --> 00:17:40.039
she gets formally charged. She's arrested. She posted twenty thousand
239
00:17:40.039 --> 00:17:46.480
dollars bond on three felony counts of sex activities with students. Now,