A wild day in court for the former assistant principal at a Tulsa elementary school accused of crimes against children.Robert Yerton, 41, is charged with three counts of lewd molestation and two counts of child sex abuse.
His defense attorney, Richard O’Carroll at one time accused Honrable Judge David Youll of bias towards the prosecution and asked the judge to recuse himelf.
Judge Youll denied that motion and the defense’s motion to disqualify Assistant District Attorney Jake Cain.
Yerton is accused of molesting a six-year-old boy, seven-year-old boy, and eight-year-old at Skelly and Disney Elementaries.
He is also accused of abusing a boy closest to him.
Today Yerton’s adopted son took the stand as he walked into the courtroom for his prelminary hearing.
On the stand he told the court when he was eleven-years-old Yerton touched his private parts while “sizing” him for a wrestling cup, he would unlock the bathroom door and watch him shower.
The boy who is now an adult also told the court when he was age 13 to 16 he would wake up and find Yerton touching his private parts.
During his testimony, O’Carroll accused the relative of lying and lying to police when first questioned about Yerton.
He also questioned why the boy didn’t reveal this alleged abuse when he filed a protective order against his adopted father last year.
Under oath, the relative told the court “There is absolutely no reason I would lie about this.”
He described his reaction to the abuse as being “frozen” and “wanting to escape and run.”
In court he testifed that he never told his mother, his granmother who then became his guardian or his counselor at the time until other alleged victims and their families came forward.
One of those boys a six-year-old at Skelly told the managing director for Tulsa’s Child Abuse Network during a forensic that Yerton did “not okay” touches.
She testified he did a “not okay” touch on his shoulder, inside his pants on his private parts and more than once inside his shirt on his back.
Only two witnesses took the stand but a list of more than ten including the school counselor who is known as the whistleblower and the alleged victim’s and their families are scheduled to return to the preliminary hearing on August 2nd.
The defense can appeal the motion to deny the judge’s recusal however, O’Carroll says he won’t he just wanted to “straighten up the judge.”
Yerton resigned from the school district last month.
He had been with Tulsa Public Schools since 1993. In his resignation letter he proclaimed his innocence saying one of his alleged victim’s has “greedy relatives”.
Yerton has been free on $150,000 bond since May.
