After Case High School teacher allegedly slaps student, state appeals court restores charge

By Kevin Murphy
Special to the Journal Times

Wednesday, August 29, 2007 11:36 AM CDT

MADISON – A state appeals court Wednesday restored a misdemeanor disorderly conduct charge against a Case High School teacher who allegedly slapped a student in 2006 without provocation.

The District 2 Court of Appeals concluded the Circuit Judge Allan Torhorst wrongly dismissed the case against teacher Jessica Jean Kachur on grounds it wasn’t prosecuted within the 60-day limits of the Speedy Trial Act.

In overturning Torhorst, Judge Daniel Anderson wrote that Kachur not only agreed to postpone the trial, the length of the delay wasn’t “prejudicial” to her case and state’s reason for the delay wasn’t in “bad faith.”

“Kachur may have suffered some stress and anxiety because of the delay in trial; however, the level of stress and anxiety involved in this case is not in itself a constitutional violation,” Anderson wrote in the 12-page opinion.

Kachur was originally charged with a forfeiture violation after she allegedly struck a boy on his face just prior to an eighth hour class on April 27, 2006. Kachur later told a principal that she slapped the youth because he was in her personal space and was mocking her. The state dismissed the forfeiture case and filed a misdemeanor in October against Kachur.

Trial was set for Dec. 14 but a week before trial the alleged victim told Assistant District Attorney Marc Christopher there were other witnesses to the incident and Christopher learned Kachur may have been involved in a prior similar situation.

On Dec. 12, Torhorst denied Christopher’s requests to add more witnesses and found that the other alleged incident was irrelevant. Torhorst said that the district attorney’s office is “overworked, not underpaid,” and that Kachur was entitled to a prompt trial, Torhorst said in denying Christopher’s request for a one-week continuance.

On Wednesday, Christopher said he didn’t appeal Torhort’s ruling because it involved a teacher and a student but because Christopher felt it was “wrongly decided.”

Kachur, who remains a teacher with the Racine Unified School District, didn’t violate the law, according to her attorney, Patrick Cafferty. He will contest the charge at trial, expected by the end of the year. If convicted Kachur faces maximum penalties of one year in jail and a $1,000 fine.

The student is a senior this year, Christopher said.

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