Jury fails to reach verdict

A Quay County jury failed to reach verdict Friday afternoon with a former Logan Municipal Schools teacher’s whistleblower and retaliation lawsuit against the district’s superintendent, resulting in a mistrial.

Logan lawyer Warren Frost, representing plaintiff Rhyan Daugherty in the case, said Friday the jury of nine men and three women voted 9-3 in favor of his client, one short of winning the case. The jurors advanced no further after 3 1/2 hours of deliberation inside the Tucumcari courthouse.

Barring a settlement, Frost said the lawsuit against Logan superintendent Dennis Roch likely would be retried in the fall. He declined to comment further.

Roch’s attorney, April White of Albuquerque, said shortly after the jury began deliberating Friday she would decline to comment, citing her firm’s policy.

Daugherty alleges Roch improperly fired him under pressure from Logan math teacher Dallas Valentine after he reported an allegation he heard she was having an inappropriate relationship with a student, identified during the trial only as KC.

New Mexico State Police investigated and found no evidence such a relationship occurred. White said during her closing argument it was “a rumor that got out of control.”

Roch’s lawyers have countered Daugherty was fired because his students showed poor academic progress during his two years with the district.

Valentine, her husband Jimmy and Logan rancher Jay Cammack once were co-defendants in the suit. Roosevelt County District Judge Donna Mowrer, who replaced 10th Judicial District Judge Albert Mitchell in the case after he recused himself, removed Cammack and the Valentines from the suit, ruling many allegations under the Whistleblower Protection act were asserted only to Roch.

During closing arguments Friday morning, Frost requested the jury award Daugherty $192,730 for back pay estimated after the history teacher and coach was fired in April 2017, plus $300,000 for emotional distress.

Frost said Roch and now-former principal Tommy Thompson were supposed to maintain a safe work environment for Daugherty. Instead, Frost said, he was subjected to harassment from Dallas Valentine.

Testimony, including from Valentine herself, revealed she gave “dirty looks” and uttered an expletive to Daugherty at school after she discovered he reported the allegation by obtaining the state police report. She also told other educators she wanted him and Roch fired.

“I felt he was gossiping about me,” Valentine said of Daugherty.

Roch and Valentine confirmed in court she once cursed Roch in a school hallway: “You’d better get your sh-- together. It’s all your f---ing fault.”

Roch testified he never disciplined Valentine for her actions against him or Daugherty.

Valentine also directed a Santa Fe law firm send a letter to Roch that Frost said signaled she was about to sue Roch and the district.

Two weeks before the trial, Valentine asked questions or discussed the case with someone scheduled to testify, Frost said. He alleged it was witness tampering and called the school district to complain. He said Roch ordered her to not talk to anyone about the case.

Frost argued Daugherty’s fate was decided during a school board meeting in January 2017 attended by the Valentines and Cammack, who directed their anger at Roch and Daugherty.

“That’s the night Mr. Daugherty got fired,” Frost told the jury. “He got fired because Mr. Roch decided to save his own skin instead of protect his employee.”

Roch testified he told Daugherty in a meeting their jobs might be in jeopardy.

“I think they want someone’s head on a block,” Roch told him.

While noting Daugherty had coached the Logan girls basketball team to the state finals one year and the semifinals in another, White argued Daugherty showed less success as an educator. She said Dallas Valentine played no role in Roch’s decision not to renew Daugherty’s contract.

White cited classroom observations by Thompson and Roch where lesson plans had no apparent match to classroom activities — Daugherty playing a ukulele; students engaging in Rubik’s Cube races; his showing a basketball movie during a section about the civil rights movement.

White said parents complained about Daugherty classes lacking academic rigor. During testimony Thursday, Roch said Daugherty scored 6.4 points out of 70 on academic advancement — 50 points lower than the district average and lower than all the other coaches there.

“Every student showed less than effective growth,” Roch testified. “He was very passionate about sports. I wish he had that same passion for the classroom.”

“The cumulative effect is Mr. Daugherty’s students were not learning,” White said during her closing argument. “He didn’t have a winning record in the classroom.”

Frost countered by noting Daugherty had ratings of “effective” and “highly effective” that were submitted to the state Public Education Department the same year he was fired.

Since his departure from Logan, Daugherty has been employed at several school districts in Texas, including as a coach.