SOUTH CAROLINA
Live5News
By Traci Washington
PORT ROYAL, SC (WTOC) –
A judge in the Lowcountry will soon decide if the sexual assault charges filed against a Sunday School teacher will be dropped, or if the case will head to a grand jury.
A four-year-old accused 41-year-Joel Iacopelli of sexually assaulting her at the Community Bible Church, back in June.
In a preliminary hearing last week, investigators told a judge the four-year-old victim changed her story about what happened. She initially told her mother and investigators that Iacopelli sexually assaulted her in a Sunday school classroom, when the female teacher left the room to take other children to the restroom. She later told someone that she made the story up.
Iacopelli’s attorney, Jared Newman, told the judge the video evidence from the church disputes parts of the mothers and the four-year-olds’ story. Now, they are hopeful the judge would drop all the charges.
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