***BREAKING: New Charges filed on former MCPS Cloverly Elementary School Teacher John Vigna

Please see our previous extensive coverage of the arrest, conviction, vacated conviction, and re-trial of former MCPS elementary school teacher John Vigna. Recall that Mr. Vigna was never fired by the Montgomery County Board of Education and his teaching license was never revoked.  He was allowed to retire and voluntarily surrender his teaching license. His original conviction was vacated and he was released from prison.  A new trial on those charges has been scheduled for 2024.  Now additional charges have been filed against Mr. Vigna.  

New charges were filed against Mr. Vigna on November 30, 2023.

From Maryland Judiciary Case Search: 

Circuit Court For Montgomery County - Criminal

Location: Montgomery Circuit Court

Case Number: C-15-CR-23-001418

Title: State of Maryland vs. JOHN VIGNA

Case Type: Criminal Indictment

Filing Date: 11/30/2023

Case Status: Open

 

John Vigna v. State of Maryland: Statement of Reasons for Vacating Convictions and Granting New Trial

2023 State v. Vigna Stateme... by Parents' Coalition of Montg...

Outrage in Olney over rape suspect's previous record

Parents complain rape suspect Joshua Black roamed the community virtually unsupervised despite convictions and escalating behavior

OLNEY, Md. — Accused rapist Joshua Black, 31, of Olney, Maryland, was ordered held without bail in Montgomery County Monday after prosecutors outlined Black's extensive record of sex crimes and allegedly sexually motivated stalking, trespassing and harassments.

Black is accused of raping a 14-year old girl in a wooded area of the Hallowell subdivision in Olney Thursday in what District Court Judge Sheri Koch described as a pattern of escalating criminal behavior...

..."We really should not have gotten to this point with this individual. He was never added to the sex offender registry. We have a registry for a reason," Stoddard said.

Stoddard said police were called to the Hallowell Community Pool on May 27 after teens, including his daughter, reported a man apparently masturbating while covered by a towel.

Black was cited for trespassing and banned from the pool, but did not face any sex crime charge under Maryland law, according to Stoddard, who complained that Black remained free to continue roaming the neighborhood on his bicycle despite his extensive record...

Olney community outraged over rape suspect's previous record | wusa9.com

Former Montgomery County teacher convicted of sexually abusing minors had convictions vacated ahead of new trial

John Vigna had been sentenced to 48 years in prison.

MONTGOMERY COUNTY, Md. (DC News Now) — A former Montgomery County teacher who was convicted of sexual abuse of minors had his convictions vacated on July 7 ahead of his new trial.

John Vigna worked at Cloverly Elementary School and was placed on leave in February 2016 following allegations that he inappropriately touched a student.

Vigna was charged with five counts of sexual abuse of a minor and four counts of third-degree sex offense involving two juvenile female victims. He was sentenced to 48 years in prison...

Former Montgomery County teacher convicted of sexually abusing minors had convictions vacated ahead of new trial | DC News Now

Ex-Montgomery County elementary school teacher released and granted new trial in sexual abuse case

Former Montgomery Co. teacher doing time for sexual abuse granted a new trial by Montgomery County Circuit Court Judge David W. Lease.

A former Montgomery County, Maryland, elementary school teacher convicted in 2017 of sexually abusing several current and former students has had the convictions against him vacated.

Montgomery County Circuit Court Judge David Lease tossed out the convictions after new attorneys for John Vigna argued that he had “ineffective assistance of counsel” during his first trial.

Lease made the decision earlier this month and ordered that Vigna should have a new trial in the case. Vigna was released pending his new trial on a $100,000 bond on July 12...

Former Montgomery Co. teacher doing time for sexual abuse granted a new trial - WTOP News

#BREAKING Former @MCPS teacher John Vigna who was convicted of sexually abusing students in 2017 has had his convictions vacated by a Montgomery County Circuit Court judge David Lease

#BREAKING Former @MCPS teacher John Vigna who was convicted of sexually abusing students in 2017 has had his convictions vacated by a Montgomery County Circuit Court judge. Vigna was serving 48-years in prison, but has now been released ahead of a new trial. @WTOP

— Mike Murillo (@MikeMurilloWTOP) July 18, 2023

What will it take to bring Catholic child abusers to justice in Maryland? A prosecutor with guts. | GUEST COMMENTARY

There are worse things than legions of sadistic sexual predators abusing Maryland’s children: like legions of sadistic sexual predators abusing Maryland’s children and getting away with it.

A recent report from the Maryland Attorney General’s Office unveiled decades of rampant sexual abuse of children by Catholic clergy and others affiliated with the Archdiocese of Baltimore. But many of the perpetrators can likely sleep easy believing that no one will prosecute them, because they beat the clock and concealed their crimes well enough to avoid detection earlier, when it would have been less challenging to bring them to trial...

...In my 38 years of practice fighting for justice as a prosecutor and as the voice for crime victims in Maryland, there is no similar circumstance in our lifetimes that reeks of injustice more than this scandal, which is only partially exposed in the attorney general’s report. Nothing should haunt good prosecutors more than this, until they exhaust every effort to bring the living offenders to justice, no matter how old the cases.

Many of the reasons that have been given not to prosecute do not ring true. For the most part, there is no impediment. For God’s sake, for the sake of justice, to even preserve the meaning of the word justice, would my prosecutorial colleagues please do something? Anything?

What will it take to bring Catholic child abusers to justice in Maryland? A prosecutor with guts. | GUEST COMMENTARY – Baltimore Sun

Montgomery County, MD: How to Mishandle Every Single Step in a School Shooting from Day of Incident, to After Action Report, to Sentencing. #MagruderHS #mocoboe #mcps

During Magruder High School Lockdown Board of Education was Hiding at College Park Luxury Hotel

Parents' Coalition of Montgomery County, Maryland: Breaking: During Magruder HS Lockdown Board of Education was Hiding at College Park Luxury Hotel. @mcps @mocoboe (parentscoalitionmc.blogspot.com)

State's Attorney John McCarthy confused our community by walking across the campus and entering the building during the lockdown. 

Parents' Coalition of Montgomery County, Maryland: Magruder HS January Shooting Lockdown: MoCo State's Attorney John McCarthy "@McCarthyMoCo confused our community by walking across the campus and entering the building. Lockdown is lockdown. Curious elected officials should have been locked out." (parentscoalitionmc.blogspot.com)

Magruder High School principal apologizes after telling community there was "no immediate threat."

Parents' Coalition of Montgomery County, Maryland: Magruder H.S. principal apologizes after telling community there was 'no immediate threat' (parentscoalitionmc.blogspot.com)

Parent meeting at 6 PM may have done the trick to keep attendance low.

Parents' Coalition of Montgomery County, Maryland: Magruder HS Parent Meeting Looks Sparsely Attended. 6 PM Start May Have Done the Trick to Keep Attendance Low. (parentscoalitionmc.blogspot.com)

MCPS explains why it failed to properly report school shootings and stabbings. 

Parents' Coalition of Montgomery County, Maryland: MCPS explains why it failed to properly report school shooting and stabbings (parentscoalitionmc.blogspot.com)

BOE President Brenda Wolff chose $100 a plate party over Magruder High School community meeting. 

Parents' Coalition of Montgomery County, Maryland: @mocoboe President Brenda Wolff Chose $100 a plate Party over Magruder High School Community Meeting (parentscoalitionmc.blogspot.com)

Mother of Magruder High School shooting victim says school leaders never contacted her. 

Parents' Coalition of Montgomery County, Maryland: Mother of Magruder shooting victim says school leaders never contacted her (parentscoalitionmc.blogspot.com)

TODAY's NEWS from The Washington Post:  Maryland judge quietly negotiated job with prosecutors while hearing cases. 

Parents' Coalition of Montgomery County, Maryland: Md. judge quietly negotiated job with prosecutors while hearing cases [including Magruder High School shooting case] (parentscoalitionmc.blogspot.com)

Md. judge quietly negotiated job with prosecutors while hearing cases [including Magruder High School shooting case]

 

Defense lawyers challenge rulings by former Montgomery County Circuit Judge David Boynton

At least four cases handled by a Maryland judge are being challenged after he presided over a series of hearings and did not reveal he was in talks to accept a job in the office of local prosecutors.

For more than six weeks, according to court documents and recorded proceedings, Montgomery County Circuit Court Judge David Boynton never disclosed he had discussed, negotiated and accepted a position with State’s Attorney John McCarthy’s office as chief of his Felony Trial Division. Boynton started that high-ranking job in February, days after retiring from the bench.

One sentencing in question includes the high-profile case of a Magruder High School student who shot and nearly killed another teen in a bathroom. In that hearing, Boynton ruled from the bench as McCarthy sat in the front row of the gallery.

Defense attorneys say the way Boynton and McCarthy handled the job switch contradicts Maryland rules designed to promote “public confidence in the independence, integrity, and impartiality of the judiciary.”..

...On Dec. 22, Boynton took up the sentencing of Steven Alston Jr. Nearly a year earlier, the 18-year-old was charged with attempted murder after bringing an untraceable “ghost gun” to Magruder High School and shooting another teen in a boys’ bathroom. As the case progressed, Alston’s defense attorney, David Felsen, discussed with prosecutors a way for Alston to plead guilty and — recognizing his age, cognitive limitations and previously clean criminal record — be sent to a prison program for young offenders, according to court records and hearings. The program typically takes six to seven years to complete.

The attorneys met with Boynton to discuss their plea terms. He then emailed them saying he was willing to impose a sentence “sufficient to allow defendant to complete” the program while maintaining the discretion to sentence Alston to as many as 25 years. The final decision, Boynton wrote, would come after he presided over a sentencing hearing...

Md. judge quietly negotiated job with prosecutors while hearing cases - The Washington Post

Magruder HS January Shooting Lockdown: MoCo State's Attorney John McCarthy "@McCarthyMoCo confused our community by walking across the campus and entering the building. Lockdown is lockdown. Curious elected officials should have been locked out."

 

Cynthia Simonson

Follow @SimonsonCynthia

   

52m • 7 tweets • 4 min read

FINALLY — @MCPS met with the community to discuss what occurred @MagruderHS on January 21. Honestly, I can’t imagine the school staff handling it better, but finally, the details emerged!! My favorite parts… 1/ 

@mentionsapologized. In my 10 years as an advocate, tonight marks the second time I’ve heard leaders admit publicly mistakes were made. That was important. 2/ 

No one expects a crisis to go perfectly. But when @MCPS glosses over the missteps, it doesn’t honor the experience. I appreciated @MCPS acknowledging there were folks that shouldn’t have been allowed to access the building. WE WERE IN LOCKDOWN!!! 3/ 

They didn’t name names, but @McCarthyMoCo confused our community by walking across the campus and entering the building. Lockdown is lockdown. Curious elected officials should have been locked out. (Sorry) 4/ 

And, @MCPS made clear they learned their lesson — reunification THEN press conference. That was NONSENSE holding our kids while McKnight and @mcpnews 5/ 

I doubt we will see another community required to wait 10 months before @MCPS meets with them. So that’s good. That’s what advocates want — to see progress!! If @MCPSSafety issues a new After Action without community input, we’ll return to @mocoboe. 6/ 

And, when @MCPS requires the Chief to apologize to the advocates in the same public forum she used to discredit us, then we’ll really know the integrity has returned to @mocoboe. 7/7 

https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1598155537061154817.html

Sup. Ct. Sotomayor to Montgomery County Prosecutor: “Prosecutors fall short of this task, and therefore do a grave disservice to the people in whose name they litigate, when they permit themselves to enjoy unfair trial advantages at defendants’ expense. Here, regardless of the reason for their acquisition of Kaur’s privileged information … the prosecutors should have recused themselves from participating in Kaur’s second trial as a matter of professional conscience.”

...Justice Sonia Sotomayor, in a written statement, said she agreed with the high court’s decision not to hear Raminder Kaur’s appeal. However, that did not absolve the Montgomery County prosecutors of having gone forward with Kaur’s second prosecution after having seen the privileged documents when Kaur waged a successful ineffective assistance of counsel challenge to her first conviction, Sotamayor added.

“Prosecutors wield an immense amount of power, and they do so in the name of the state itself,” Sotomayor wrote.

“That unique privilege comes with the exceptional responsibility to ensure that the criminal justice system indeed serves the ends of justice,” Sotomayor added. “Prosecutors fall short of this task, and therefore do a grave disservice to the people in whose name they litigate, when they permit themselves to enjoy unfair trial advantages at defendants’ expense. Here, regardless of the reason for their acquisition of Kaur’s privileged information … the prosecutors should have recused themselves from participating in Kaur’s second trial as a matter of professional conscience.”

The prosecutors’ failure to recuse “casts a troubling and unnecessary shadow over Kaur’s conviction and sentence to life imprisonment,” Sotomayor wrote...

https://thedailyrecord.com/2020/10/05/supreme-court-denies-germantown-murderers-appeal/

Father blames 'loophole' in Maryland law for allowing alleged (Montgomery Co.) molester to walk free

ROCKVILLE, Md. (ABC7) — A Bethesda father believes a loophole in Maryland's criminal statute allowed an alleged molester to wiggle his way out of criminal charges.

The father, who spoke on condition of anonymity, explains his only daughter wanted to learn how to play the electric bass guitar. It was 2006. His daughter, now 29, was 17-years-old at the time. The father found a highly-rated music instructor in Wheaton. The male instructor was in his 50s and appeared kind, gracious and dedicated to his craft.

Nearly every Saturday for two years, the father drove his daughter to the instructor's modest one-story brick home. The instructor, who ABC7 is not naming, took the teen to a spare bedroom, which he had turned into a soundproof music studio. Each lesson went for one hour.

The father would relax on the sofa in the adjacent living room, reading magazines, watching television and occasionally napping. Not once did he suspect a sliver of impropriety.

"This was a man I welcomed into my home, we fed him, we went to his concerts at area restaurants and the zoo," the father told ABC7 during a concealed identity interview. "I paid him $50 for 80 lessons, that's $4,000, and he was doing terrible things behind my back."

In August 2008, the girl, then 18, stopped taking the private music lessons and enrolled at Montgomery College. The separation wasn't hostile or unfriendly; the arrangement had simply run its course...

https://wjla.com/news/local/father-poses-loophole-in-maryland-sex-abuse-law

Alsobrooks calls on Md. lawmakers to strengthen law after Carraway school sex abuse case

ANNAPOLIS, Md. (ABC7) — In multiple civil lawsuits filed against the Prince George’s County School system, it has been alleged that the administration of Judge Sylvania Woods Elementary School knew but did not report that now-imprisoned teacher’s aide Deonte Carraway was abusing multiple children in the school.

Prince Georges County State’s Attorney Angela Alsobrooks considered charges against the principal of the school, but found the law was not on her side. Now she wants the law changed.

“What we know is that what happened at that school should not have happened there and we know it should never happen again,” Alsobrooks says...

http://wjla.com/news/local/alsobrooks-calls-on-md-lawmakers-to-strengthen-law-after-carraway-school-sex-abuse-case

The Teens Trapped Between a Gang and the Law

Read the full story in The New Yorker here. By author Jonathan Blitzer, January 1, 2018.

On Long Island, unaccompanied minors are caught between the violence of MS-13 and the fear of deportation.

Juliana grew up with a single memory of her father. He was sitting in the half-light of evening on the porch of their home, in a small town in El Salvador, while her mother cooked dinner in the kitchen. A man in a black mask emerged from the darkness. Juliana heard three gunshots, and saw her father fall off his chair, vomiting blood. She was three years old at the time, and afterward she wondered if the killing had actually happened. The most tangible detail was the man in the mask, who came to seem more present in her life than her father ever was. Juliana used to find her mother by the windows, pulling back a corner of the curtains to be sure that he had not returned. “It was like that man went on living with us,” Juliana told me. One day when she was older, her mother said that a gang called the Mara Salvatrucha, also known as MS-13, had killed her father for refusing to pay a tax on a deli that he operated out of the house.

For five years after the killing, the family moved every six months, staying with relatives throughout El Salvador, trying to keep ahead of the gang. In 2011, after Juliana’s mother, Ramona, testified against the killer, a member of MS-13 tried to stab her at a soccer game, where she was selling refreshments. She escaped, and fled the country, leaving Juliana and her two younger sisters at an aunt’s house, because she couldn’t afford to bring them with her. She went to Brentwood, on Long Island, where she had relatives, and took a job cleaning houses. A few years later, she was returning home from work, when she got a call. “What I need is money to pay a lawyer for the people who have been affected by what you’ve said,” a male voice told her. “I know the people of the neighborhood. I know your family, your kids, your daughter.” One of Juliana’s schoolmates, a sixteen-year-old boy who belonged to MS-13, had kidnapped her from her aunt’s house; for weeks, she was raped and beaten. She managed to call her mother one afternoon, and together they plotted her escape.

Breaking News: Lawsuit Filed Against Montgomery County Public Schools for Child Sexual Abuse by John Vigna

***MEDIA ALERT***

NEWS CONFERENCE TODAY (THURSDAY)

Lawsuit Filed Against Montgomery County Public Schools

for Child Sexual Abuse by John Vigna

WHAT: Jeff Herman, a nationally recognized attorney for victims of sexual abuse,
announces the filing of a lawsuit against MONTGOMERY COUNTY PUBLIC
SCHOOLS (MCPS) for child sexual abuse by JOHN VIGNA, a teacher at
CLOVERLY ELEMENTARY SCHOOL in Silver Spring, Maryland. VIGNA was
recently convicted and sentenced to 48 years in prison.

According to the Complaint:
• In 2008, Vigna was caught putting little girls on his lap two times in his fifth grade class
and was reprimanded.
• In 2013, Vigna was caught again putting a little girl on his lap in his fifth grade class.
After an investigation Vigna was reprimanded again and transferred to a third grade class.
• In 2013, Vigna was Jane Doe’s third grade teacher. Vigna groomed Jane Doe and began
putting her on his lap daily during lunch and movie time. Vigna sexually assaulted Jane
Doe by fondling her buttocks and vagina over her clothes and rubbed his erect penis
against her.
• Vigna directed Jane Doe to visit him in his classroom during lunch and dismissal time
when Jane Doe was in fourth and fifth grade. Vigna bought Jane Doe books from the
book fair and gave her candy. During these visits, Vigna continued to sexually abuse Jane
Doe and eventually began to digitally penetrate Jane Doe’s vagina.

JANE DOE v. Montgomery County Public was filed in Montgomery County.

“The school had red flags that John Vigna was not safe. This convicted pedophile
should not have been around these children.” said Jeff Herman, the attorney for the
victim in this case.

WHEN/WHERE: TODAY (THURSDAY), August 10th, 2017 at 1:30 pm  4 PM in front of
Montgomery County Public Schools
850 Hungerford Drive
Rockville, MD 20850

CONTACT: Krisel McSweeney; kmcsweeney@hermanlaw.com

Breaking the Silence on Sexual Abuse of Students in Maryland Public Schools

pic.twitter.com/0i8ZrNjYxZ

— jennifer alvaro (@jennifermalvaro) July 19, 2017

Vigna had been counseled on a number of occasions, beginning back in 2008, to halt the practice of having physical contact with students. That counseling reoccurred in 2013 and 2015.

FORMER ELEMENTARY SCHOOL TEACHER FOUND GUILTY OF SEXUAL ABUSE OF STUDENTS

 ROCKVILLE — A former Montgomery County Public Schools teacher was found guilty Friday of sexual abuse of students.

After nine hours of deliberation Friday night, a jury found John Vigna, 50, of Silver Spring, guilty of four counts of sex abuse of a minor and five counts of third-degree sex offense, according to Ramon Korionoff, spokesperson for the Montgomery County State’s Attorney’s Office.

John McCarthy, state’s attorney for Montgomery County said Vigna was arrested in June of 2016 after five Cloverly students, both current and former, reported that they had been touched inappropriately while sitting in Vigna's lap during the school day. Victims came forward after taking a mandated body safety class which helped them understand inappropriate contact.

“Body safety classes instituted by MCPS helped expose this child sex offender,” said McCarthy. “We commend the jury for working hard through a Friday night to render this verdict. It holds John Vigna accountable.”

McCarthy said Vigna, who had been a teacher at Cloverly Elementary School for 20 years, taught third, fourth, and fifth grade. The children who were his victims all hailed from those grades. Vigna had been counseled on a number of occasions, beginning back in 2008, to halt the practice of having physical contact with students. That counseling reoccurred in 2013 and 2015. The most recent event, which actually gave rise to the charges in this case, occurred in February of 2016...

http://www.thesentinel.com/mont/news/local/item/5310-former-elementary-school-teacher-found-guilty-of-sexual-abuse-of-students

A veteran Montgomery County teacher has been convicted of nine counts of sexual abuse.

Montgomery Co. teacher convicted of child sex abuse

WASHINGTON — A veteran Montgomery County teacher has been convicted of nine counts of sexual abuse.

Fifty-year-old John Vigna, of Silver Spring, Maryland, taught at Cloverly Elementary School for more than 20 years, and it was a 2016 class on “body safety” that triggered the investigation that led to his arrest and conviction, said Montgomery County State’s Attorney John McCarthy.

McCarthy says that during the February 2016 class — in which children are taught how to identify sexual abuse — teachers noted the physical reaction of one student.

“The person teaching the body safety class watched the girl begin to shrink down, and put her head on the desk,” McCarthy said, adding the instructors talked to the student...

http://wtop.com/montgomery-county/2017/06/montgomery-co-teacher-convicted-of-child-sex-abse/

TODAY: Mont. Co. State's Attorney Press Conference on Verdicts in MCPS Teacher John Vigna Trial Planned for 1:45 PM

The Parents' Coalition received the following message from the State's Attorney's Office:  

We are planning to talk to the media at 1:45 in the Circuit Court lobby.
Ramón V. Korionoff
Public Affairs Director
Montgomery County State’s Attorney’s Office
240-777-7397