Superintendent’s bribery charge involves sex case against teacher, prosecutor says

The attempted bribery indictment against Franklin County Superintendent Mark Kopp stems from alleged statements he made during a sexual abuse investigation involving a former teacher at Bondurant Middle School, Franklin Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Zachary Becker said Wednesday.

The former teacher, Todd Joseph Smith, was indicted Tuesday on two counts of first-degree sexual abuse, according to court records. One of those was alleged to have occurred August 2018 and the most recent in March 2019, Becker said in an interview. Becker said Smith was placed on paid leave until the end of last school year and his contract was not renewed for the 2019-2020 school year.

Whitney Allison, who Becker identified as the principal of Bondurant Middle School, was also indicted Tuesday for failure to report child neglect or abuse, according to Franklin Court records. Becker said the charge was in connection to the Smith case.

“We absolutely deny that she failed to properly report sexual abuse,” Allison’s attorney Fred Peters said Wednesday. Peters said Allison would plead not guilty. An article previously posted on the Franklin County Schools website said Allison became principal at Bondurant in January 2019 and that she was previously principal at Winburn Middle School in Lexington.

Becker said Kopp’s misdemeanor charge of attempted bribery of a public servant was in relation to statements he allegedly made in relation to Smith’s case to Franklin County Sheriff’s Deputy Montey Chappell, who was working as a school resource officer in June 2019. Court records identified Chappell as the complaining witness in the case. Franklin County Sheriff Chris Quire declined to comment Wednesday.

Kopp told the Herald-Leader Wednesday that his attorney had advised him not to comment. An indictment in Franklin Circuit Court did not provide specifics about the charge against Kopp.

Kopp and Allison are scheduled to be arraigned on Oct. 15 in Franklin District Court.

Franklin School Board Chairman Natalie Lile told the Frankfort State Journal Tuesday that she had no information about the charges against Kopp and had not yet called a school board meeting on the issue. Lile did not immediately comment to the Herald-Leader Wednesday.

This story was originally published September 25, 2019 at 10:44 AM.