By BOB MARTIN
Eagle Times Staff
CLAREMONT, N.H. — Erin Mullen, the former Claremont Middle School teacher accused of an inappropriate relationship with a 14-year-old student, appeared in court on Monday for a case status hearing where her attorney told Judge Daniel Swegart that she has been adhering to the bail conditions including counseling.
Mullen, 38, of Springfield, Vt. was arrested on Feb. 5 and subsequently fired for violating a temporary stalking order when a police officer saw her with the student at the Claremont Savings Bank Community Center after school. This was less than an hour after she was served the protective order by the school resource officer. She pleaded not guilty to charges of stalking and violation of a protective order and was released on $1,000 bail.
Mullen appeared in person at Claremont District Court on Monday afternoon, accompanied by Public Defender Benjamin St. Pierre who spoke on her behalf throughout the hearing. Mullen sat looking straight ahead, and several times St. Pierre leaned over to her speaking quietly as she nodded.
On the other side of the court room was Prosecutor John Proctor of the Sullivan County Attorney’s Office. He told Judge Swegart that scheduling another status hearing seemed appropriate due to the amount of time it will take with evidence.
“There’s no way for me to tell him (St. Pierre) how long it’s going to take to gather all the electronic evidence,” Proctor said.
Judge Swegart said he was fine with this and then said in terms of the bail orders he imposed, he wants to make sure that she was adhering to them. He said he is flexible to how this is reported.
“My intention is to not get into that on the public record, but I want to make sure that she’s following my bail orders,” Swegart said. “One thing that would achieve my goals, if it works better this way, is to have certain information released to the Sullivan County Attorney and not released to the public file in terms of achieving compliance and attendance.”
St. Pierre told Swegart that he had permission to inform the court that Mullen came to her office on Friday and showed a letter that she has been following up with a behavioral health counselor for weekly meetings. Since she is no longer teaching at Claremont Middle School, she has lost her insurance. Being a Vermont resident, she has an intake with Health Care and Rehabilitation Services (HRCS) and is using Medicaid moving forward.
“She is working on transitioning from her prior counselor to HCRS,” St. Pierre said.
Judge Swegart replied, “That representation lines up with what I was hoping to hear. On the other hand, I had some specific requirements that she release information to the state to show she is doing that, not to show everything she is saying, but just documents.”
St. Pierre said it is his understanding that there is a limited release form from the behavioral health center to be submitted to the Sullivan County Attorney’s office.
It was inquired whether there was a waiver of extradition in the file, but there was not one yet. St. Pierre said he would take care of that immediately.
Before scheduling the next status hearing, Swegart said that the temporary order of protection that was filed is now a “final order.”
After agreeing on the date for another case status hearing, Swegart addressed Mullen before excusing her to stress the importance that she continues to follow bail orders accordingly.
“Thank you, Ms. Mullen. All my prior orders remain in effect and I don’t think I need to reiterate what I said to you in terms of the need to follow those orders very carefully,” Swegart said.
When asked about details of the bail conditions, Proctor said that all the information was laid out in the court. A request for a comment from St. Pierre was denied by the receptionist at his office, saying they “could not talk about anything” regarding the case.
Mullen has been under investigation by police and SAU 6 since the fall, and according to the attorney of the mother of the child, she was suspended twice, and reinstated twice, before being fired. Superintendent Chris Pratt has stated that he is looking into having her stripped of her certification to teach.
The district conferred with legal counsel and the Claremont Police, and stated that “it is clear” that the administration “acted appropriately in response to the information it had received prior to the teacher’s removal from employment.”
“The Claremont School District takes student safety very seriously and this case is no exception,” the district stated in a press release last week. “Throughout the events that led up to the arrest, the administration worked hand in hand with the Claremont Police Department and the N.H. Department of Education in complete transparency.”
The district posted the press release on Facebook and turned off comments, but it was reposted on “What’s Up Claremont,” where it has 136 comments and 112 reactions.
Mullen is due back in court for another status hearing on April 4 at 1 p.m. at the Claremont District Court.
