BOISE, Idaho — On Friday, several motions to dismiss the case were presented by the defense of Christopher Ryan, the former Fairmont Jr. High Principal. The defense looked to call into question the grand jury process in hopes of getting the case dismissed before trial is slated to start at the end of May.
Related | Former Boise principal charged with Felony Injury to Child for 2022 incident
Idaho News 6 was the first to report about the new felony charge after a previous misdemeanor case was dismissed in 2023.
The allegations surround a former school social worker at Fairmont Jr. High, Scott Crandell, and his alleged inappropriate relationships with minor students while Ryan was principal.
Judge Nancy Baskin heard the arguments from the defense on multiple reasons they feel the case should be dismissed.
First, the defense said in the statute, the law says a person has to produce "great bodily harm" in order to have committed felony injury to a child. they argued the emotional and physical harm presented in this case does not correlate with "great bodily harm" because there wasn't physical harm. Because of that, they argue, Ryan shouldn't have been charged with that crime.
The state disagreed, saying the threshold of "great bodily harm" was up to a jury to decide.
The defense also argued there wasn't sufficient evidence to show Ryan had the responsibility of the "care or custody" of the victim, which is another requirement under felony injury to a child.
The state argued that because Ryan had knowledge of the alleged inappropriate relationship, and acted on it, he then took over that responsibility.
The defense continued to argue around the grand jury in their next motion to dismiss. They argued the state did not present all the evidence they had, including an email that was mentioned, which had exculpatory evidence.
Judge Baskin asked multiple questions to the state about why that email wasn't shown, but the state had no answer.
The defense also called into question one of the state's expert witnesses, Dr. Matthew Cox, who gave testimony on child sexual abuse.
Ryan's defense hopes to exclude their testimony. The prosecution says Cox has expertise from his years doing work surrounding child abuse, including serving as medical director of St. Luke's Children at Risk Evaluation Services, or CARES. The judge thought it was enough to grant the defense's 702 hearing request, which will examine if Cox has enough expertise to be an expert witness on this case.
At the end of the morning, the judge decided to review the cases and give an oral decision on May 3, which will also serve as Ryan's Pre-Trial Conference.
Cox's 702 hearing will be May 17 at 9 am, and the jury trial, as of now, is set to start May 28 and last through mid-June.
