SEATTLE (WA)
The Jewish Sound
Janis Siegel JTNews correspondent
Jordan Eareckson Murray, the Torah Day School teacher charged with seven counts of communicating with a minor for immoral purposes in his classroom in May 2013, will not see further jail time. Murray changed his innocent plea to guilty on two of those counts in Feb. 2014, but again declared his innocence on Friday to Judge Laura Gene Middaugh, who rejected that assertion before handing down her sentence.
Saying that TDS was “truly a second home,” Murray read from his pre-sentencing statement while his wife, who remains supportive, watched in the courtroom.
“Although I’m not guilty of the crimes I was charged with,” said Murray, “I understand how the accusation of sexual abuse happens. Jewish communities are very close-knit…. When allegations of this magnitude occur in such an intimate community it puts a tremendous strain on their social environment. I hope and pray that everything that has transpired in the past year will not affect the persons associated with these allegations.”
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