WV: Teacher faces sexual abuse accusations

By Kevin Kelly
June 4, 2009
http://www.mydailyregister.com/pages/full_story?page_label=home_top_stories_news&article-Teacher%20faces%20sexual%20abuse%20accusations%20=&id=2670449-Teacher+faces+sexual+abuse+accusations&widget=push&instance=home_news_lead&open=&

POINT PLEASANT — A teacher in the Mason County Schools has been accused of sexual abuse in the first degree in alleged incidents dating back almost 30 years.

Curtis Cole Kimble, 57, Milton, appeared before Mason County Magistrate Gail Roush on Thursday and was placed on $500,000 bond on 31 counts of allegedly abusing two girls. One of the alleged victims claimed an incident occurred in Kimble’s classroom at Hannan High School.

Kimble is a teacher at both Hannan and Ashton Elementary School, authorities said.

An accusation only tells one side of the story, and does not establish guilt or innocence.

At his arraignment, Kimble was advised by Roush that should he post bond, a preliminary hearing to determine cause to submit the case to the grand jury will be held within 20 days. If he remains in the Western Regional Jail at Barboursville, the hearing will be held in 10 days.

A complaint filed by the Mason County Detachment of the West Virginia State Police said Kimble allegedly had sexual contact with one girl 30 times between 1982 and 1990 at two locations, the first at Ashton and the other at Gallipolis Ferry. At the time the alleged crimes occurred, the victim was between the ages of 3 and 11.

The second complaint alleges that Kimble had sexual contact with a girl and tried to kiss her, but she did not allow him to do so. This incident, the only to be reported by this victim, is alleged to have occurred “around the year of 1980” at Hannan High, the complaint reads.

The information was obtained from the alleged victims and from the mother of one by the investigating officer, Cpl. K.M. Gilley.

Sexual abuse in the first degree is defined as an individual subjecting another individual to sexual contact without their consent, and that the lack of consent “results from forcible compulsion,” according to the complaint.

The penalty is imprisonment in a West Virginia correctional facility for more than one but no more than five years and a $10,000 fine.