A Broomfield middle school teacher accused of sexually assaulting a teen girl who was his aide in the case, according to court records and attorneys involved in the case.
Christian Rocky Armstrong, 46, had before a handed down the verdict Tuesday afternoon. Armstrong was arrested in the case in May 2015, and charged with five counts, including child sex assault by a person in a position of trust on a victim younger than 15 and a pattern of child sex assault.
Armstrong, at the time of his arrest, was a geography teacher at Westlake Middle School, prosecutors said.
“He’s currently on unpaid leave pending the outcome of a dismissal hearing (on his employment),” said Joe Ferdani, a spokesman for Adams 12 School District.
Ferdani said a hearing officer will decide Armstrong’s employment future.
“We’re very thankful that the jury acquitted Mr. Armstrong,” said Christopher Decker, Armstrong’s Denver-based defense attorney. “We feel that was the appropriate verdict in the case. It was a very difficult case.”Decker said Armstrong had worked for 17 years in education before his arrest.
“Any time a school teacher is charged with these types of times, it’s extremely difficult to find a fair jury,” Decker said. “He and his family are asking for some privacy to recuperate and heal from what an allegation like this brings with it. He’s very pleased to move past this.”
Authorities assaulting the teen girl between August 2012 and May 2013, and said she was 13 years old when the alleged sex assaults began. Police say their investigation into Armstrong began in March 2015 after the girl — who was in 10th grade at the time — told her parents of the alleged assaults.
According to , Armstrong denied all charges of sexual assault but did admit that the contact he had with the girl after she went to high school — not when she was in middle school — was inappropriate.
