Photo/Shelley Hanson The Marshall County Magistrate Court building is shown on Thursday. Kiersten Moses, the former McNinch Primary School teacher accused of strangling a 6-year-old autistic student, waived her right to a preliminary hearing on Thursday. Her case is being transferred to Marshall County Circuit Court.

MOUNDSVILLE – Former McNinch Primary School teacher Kiersten Moses, who is accused of strangling a 6-year-old autistic student, waived her right to a preliminary hearing in Marshall County Magistrate Court on Thursday.

Marshall County Magistrate Thomas Wood said the case against Moses will now be transferred over to Marshall County Circuit Court. Her case will be presented to the next grand jury, which meets in March.

Moses’ hearing was slated for Thursday afternoon; however, she never entered the courtroom and instead signed a waiver.

“When you’re charged with a felony offense in the state of West Virginia, you can waive your right to preliminary hearing,” Marshall County Prosecutor Joe Canestraro said. “If you choose to waive your right, it automatically gets bound over to the circuit court.”

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

Besides facing possible prison time if convicted, he noted Moses could also lose her teaching license.

“It’s my understanding that she resigned as a teacher, and from what I’ve heard the state is going to try and take her teacher’s license,” Canestraro said.

Moses’ attorney is Braden Noon.

Two other women are also facing charges in the case.

Erin Cuffaro, the Marshall County School District’s director of special programs, faces 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.

Cuffaro recently waived her right to a preliminary hearing as well. Her case is now awaiting presentment to the grand jury, which meets in March.

Jane Duffy, the former principal at McNinch, faces one misdemeanor count of failure to report child abuse or neglect. Duffy has a pre-trial hearing slated for 1 p.m. Feb. 26 before Marshall County Magistrate Kevin Cecil.

According to the criminal complaint against Moses, a West Virginia State Trooper was investigating a complaint made on Oct. 8 of alleged abuse of a McNinch student on Sept. 18. According to the complaint, Moses allegedly grabbed a 6-year-old girl, who is nonverbal and on the autism spectrum, by the neck with both hands and squeezed.

The incident was recorded on video, according to the 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, a school aide witnessed the incident and took the girl to the nurse’s office, where the nurse took photos of red marks on the girl’s neck.

According to the complaint, the trooper reviewed more video from Sept. 16, where Moses stood behind the girl, grabbed her arms and pulled them in a criss-cross behind the girl’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 complaints, both reviewed the video of the incident.

The trooper asked Duffy why she did not report the incident through the Child Abuse Hotline. Duffy’s position makes her a mandated reporter who must report any incident of child abuse within 24 hours. Duffy allegedly showed the trooper a text message from Cuffaro which read, “My day is crazy. She did put her hands on (the student’s) neck briefly. Please talk with her about this. Not a verbal reprimand at this point, but tell her to watch putting her hands on children when it is not necessary.”

The trooper then spoke to Cuffaro on multiple occasions, according to the complaints. The trooper said Cuffaro told him she did tell Duffy to give Moses a verbal reprimand. When confronted about the text message, Cuffaro allegedly told the trooper she did not send it and offered to show him proof.

According to the complaints, the trooper said it appeared the message had been deleted, as was everything else prior to that specific message. Everything after that specific message remained on the phone. According to the complaints, Cuffaro later admitted to sending the message.

Because Cuffaro did not remove Moses from the classroom, the trooper said that placed eight students in the classroom in danger of being injured, which led to the eight felony counts against Cuffaro. According to the complaints, Cuffaro also failed to report the abuse, nor did she direct Duffy or another subordinate to do so.

All three women have pleaded not guilty to the charges against them. Duffy has since retired, Moses resigned from her position, and Cuffaro was suspended without pay.