Erin Cuffaro, director of special programs for Marshall County Schools, signs some paperwork in Marshall County Magistrate Court on Tuesday with help from Marshall County Assistant Prosecutor Adam Barney. Her preliminary hearing will be rescheduled in 20 days. She is facing eight counts of felony gross neglect of child creating a substantial risk of death or serious bodily injury and misdemeanors in her alleged involvement in the strangling and abuse of a McNinch Primary School student who is non-verbal and autistic. Photo by Shelley Hanson

MOUNDSVILLE — Two defendants in a case involving the alleged strangulation and abuse of a non-verbal, autistic McNinch Primary School student — who originally were to have preliminary court hearings this week — had them continued to January in Marshall County Magistrate Court.

Marshall County Schools Special Programs Director Erin Cuffaro was slated to have a preliminary hearing Tuesday before Judge Zachary Allman. However, she told Allman that she had hired a lawyer for her defense, but he was not available for her hearing Tuesday. The judge informed her that she needed to file a waiver of continuance so a preliminary hearing could be held in the next 20 days.

Marshall County Assistant Prosecutor Adam Barney helped her with the related paperwork which she signed in the courtroom.

Cuffaro is facing eight counts of felony gross neglect of child creating a substantial risk of death or serious bodily injury; one misdemeanor count of failure to report child abuse or neglect; one misdemeanor count of obstruction of law enforcement, probation, parole, court security, corrections officer with threats of harm; and one misdemeanor count of interference with officers or members and false information.

Former McNinch teacher Kiersten Moses, who resigned from her position on Oct. 5, was slated to have a preliminary hearing Wednesday; however, a magistrate court clerk official said her preliminary hearing had been rescheduled for 2 p.m. Jan. 29 before Judge Thomas Wood.

Moses is facing a felony count of strangulation, two felony counts of battery and assault of a disabled child and one count of felony child abuse.

McNinch Principal Jane Duffy is slated to have a pretrial hearing at 10:15 a.m. Jan. 14 in magistrate court, according to court records. Duffy is facing one misdemeanor count of failure to report child abuse or neglect.

All three defendants have pleaded not guilty to the charges against them. According to criminal complaints, Moses allegedly put her hands around the throat of the 6-year-old student and squeezed. A teacher’s aide in the room informed Duffy, who informed Cuffaro, according to the complaints.

Allegedly, neither Duffy nor Cuffaro reported the incident to the Child Abuse Hotline, which is their obligation as mandatory reporters. When questioned as to why she didn’t report the incident, Duffy allegedly showed a state trooper a text message from Cuffaro telling her to just talk to Moses about the incident and not give a verbal warning.

When the state trooper questioned Cuffaro, she allegedly told the trooper she did tell Duffy to give a verbal warning and claimed she never sent the text, showing the trooper her phone. According to the complaint, the trooper saw that all text messages in Cuffaro’s phone from when that message was sent and earlier had been deleted. Cuffaro allegedly later admitted she did in fact send the text.

The incident was recorded on video, according to a criminal complaint and the trooper reviewed the video. In his report, he said he saw Moses interact with the girl near a door in the special needs classroom. The girl appeared to become agitated and advance toward Moses. Moses allegedly reacted by placing both hands on the child’s neck and squeezing for about six seconds.

According to the complaint, the school aide who witnessed the incident took the child to the nurse’s office, where the nurse took photos of red marks on the child’s neck.

According to the complaint, the trooper reviewed more video from Sept. 16, where Moses stood behind the child, grabbed the child’s arms and pulled them in a criss-cross behind the child’s back “in a needless and uncomfortable position.”

According to the complaints against Duffy and Cuffaro, the aide alerted Duffy to the incident and Duffy reported the incident to Cuffaro. According to the criminal complaints, both reviewed the video of the incident.