The longtime spokesman for Loudoun County (Va.) Public Schools has been acquitted of a charge that he lied under oath to a special grand jury.
NBC4 Washington reports that a jury deliberated for an hour and 45 minutes before finding Wayde Byard not guilty of perjury.
Byard was indicted last year on a felony count of perjury. Prosecutors said Byard lied to the grand jury that was looking into how the school district handled two sexual assaults committed by the same high school student.
A 14-year-old student sexually assaulted a female student at Stone Bridge High School in May 2021, but was allowed to transfer to Broad Run High School, where he abducted and sexually assaulted another female student in October of 2021. The teen was later convicted in juvenile court.
During his testimony to a grand jury, Byard said he didn't know about the first sexual assault at Stone Bridge High School until after the second assault happened at Broad Run High School.
The prosecution alleged that there was no way Byard couldn’t have known about the first sex assault, and that he had intent and motive to lie to protect the school system.
