Before a Loudoun County Public Schools spokesman is set to go to trial in June, WTOP has learned what he said to a grand jury that led to perjury charges.
Wayde Byard was indicted on charges of lying under oath on Aug. 2, 2021, when testifying to a grand jury. It’s one of the many facets of the state’s investigation into two sexual assaults by a high school student, looking into how the Loudoun County school district handled the crimes.
In his testimony last August, court filings show what schools spokesman Wayde Byard said under oath. He said that he was unaware of a sexual assault that occurred at Stone Bridge High School handicapped bathroom stall in May 2021 until a second sexual assault was committed in October 2021 by the same now 15-year-old student at Broad Run High School.
In exchanges between the spokesman and prosecutor, Theophani K. Stamos, special prosecutor to the special counsel to the Virginia Attorney General’s Office, found it hard to believe Byard didn’t ask Stone Bridge administrators what happened before alerting parents that police were on campus on the day of the incident.
“And as you sit here today, can you tell us when you became aware of the incident that propelled your school system into the hot white light of public concern?” Stamos asked Byard.
“Probably after the arrest at Broad Run… in October,” Byard answered.
“And you’re telling the members of this special grand jury that it wasn’t until October 6th of 2021, that you were actually aware that a student at Stone Bridge High School walked into the females’ bathroom and sexually assaulted and was subsequently charged with two counts of forceable sodomy? You didn’t know that?” Stamos asked.
“No ma’am. At that point that would be a student record and it would be either a disciplinary record that I’m not privy to, so, no. I would not have been privy to that kind of information,” Byard replied.
After the student was accused of sexual assault at Stone Bridge, school administrators moved him to Broad Run where he assaulted another student, court documents show.
The student was found guilty of the assault at Stone Bridge and entered a plea, acknowledging the evidence to prove his guilt, in the second assault at Broad Run.
The documents do not show how prosecutors plan to prove Byard perjured himself. He is pleading not guilty to the charges.
Byard is currently on administrative leave from his position with the school district.
