BEDFORD — The Chestnut Ridge Middle School assistant principal accused of failing to report multiple incidents of suspected sexual assault had three felonies and one misdemeanor dismissed following a preliminary hearing in Bedford County Central Court on Wednesday.

Patrick Nathan Isgan, 37, of Bedford, had been facing more than 60 charges, including two felony counts of endangering the welfare of children, one felony count each of failure to report or refer and continuing failure to report or refer, 55 misdemeanor counts of endangering the welfare of children, two misdemeanor counts of endangering the welfare of children – prevent/interfere with making report and a misdemeanor count of failure to report or refer.

After hearing testimony from four witnesses, Magisterial District Judge Wendy Mellot dismissed the one felony count of continuing failure to report or refer, one felony count of failure to report or refer, one of the two felony counts of endangering the welfare of children and one of the two misdemeanor counts of endangering the welfare of children – prevent/interfere with making report.

The 55 misdemeanor counts of endangering the welfare of children – parent/guardian/other was amended to 51 counts to reflect the number of children on the bus during the alleged incident. Mellot bound those charges to court, along with the remaining misdemeanor count of endangering the welfare of children – prevent/interfere with making report and the remaining felony count endangering the welfare of children.

Isgan remains free on 10% of $1 million bond.

The charges against Isgan stem from an investigation into the Chestnut Ridge School District after it was discovered through several Child Advocacy Center interviews that multiple cases of sexual assault, allegedly committed by the same 12-year-old boy, were not reported to ChildLine, court documents state.

Devin Sciranko, a substitute bus driver for Maxwell Transportation, and Simon Osman, a bus dispatcher for the same company, both testified during Wednesday’s proceedings. They both received immunity for their testimony.

Osman said that Sciranko had approached him on Nov. 2, 2023, and said that a little girl told him a boy was touching her.

When First Assistant District Attorney Douglas Keating asked what he did next, Osman said he and Sciranko filled out a referral form and then sent an email to Isgan about what had happened.

Osman then said he watched the video from the bus but “didn’t see anything.”

Keating then asked how Osman came to be in possession of the video, to which Osman said he took it off of the bus’s hard drive, put it onto a thumb drive and took it to Isgan at Chestnut Ridge. He added that Isgan asked for the videos from Nov. 1 and Nov. 2.

Upon cross examination, Isgan’s attorney Thomas Dickey asked if Osman had sent the email stating what had happened to anyone else. Osman said he had included Middle School Principal Greg Lazor in the email because “if nothing seems to be getting done” from prior incidents, then they are supposed to “pull in higher ups.”

When asked what he saw in the video, Osman said he “did not see anything” in the “bits and pieces” he watched and claimed that he had “skipped to a point” where he could see the students so he could provide their names.

Dickey pointed out that the email Osman had sent Isgan and Lazor read “I sat down and I did not see any sexual harassment on the video.”

Lazor was the next to testify and said that it is the assistant principal’s responsibility to handle truancy and discipline within the school. He said that he did receive the email from Osman and that Isgan told him that he was going to talk to the students involved.

Lazor said that there was no ChildLine investigation based on Isgan’s investigation.

During cross examination, Lazor confirmed that the 12-year-old boy and the 8-year-old victim were interviewed by Isgan and that it was Isgan’s understanding that the boy had put an arm around the victim to “console her.”

Lazor said the boy was still disciplined by being removed from the bus for one day.

State Trooper Damon Braniff said the state police investigation began on Feb. 8 when they received six ChildLine reports from the Chestnut Ridge School District. He then contacted the parents of the children involved for interviews.

Bedford County District Attorney Ashlan Clark asked Braniff the ages of the children involved, to which he said there were three 6-year-olds, one 7-year-old and two 8-year-olds.

Arresting officer Nathan Smith said he went to the school to speak with Lazor and Isgan and learned that there was an investigation into the incidents in November but that it was determined that nothing had occurred.

Smith said that it wasn’t until additional incidents were reported in February that Isgan filled out the ChildLine reports.

Clark then asked Smith if he had received a typed timeline of events from Isgan. Smith said that he had and that it stated, on Nov. 3, a girl said a boy touched her and “she did not like it.”

Smith said that he, Lazor and Isgan watched the video from Nov. 2 together and “saw that the sexual assaults did occur.”

When Clark asked Smith if he could authenticate the thumb drive and the video on it as the one from the bus, Dickey objected, saying that there were no paper trail or receipts tracking the item as it passed from hand to hand. Clark argued that the thumb drive had a serial number and that the video was timestamped, but Dickey’s objection was ultimately sustained, meaning Smith was not permitted to authenticate either the thumb drive or video.

Upon cross examination, Dickey questioned Smith on what he had actually seen on the video he watched in February. While being questioned by Clark, Smith said that the boy had stacked bookbags on his and the victim’s laps to hide what was happening, that the boy’s hand was moving in an “up and down motion” underneath the bags near the victim’s lap area, that the boy had gotten onto his knees for more than 30 seconds with his head under the bags near the victim’s lap area while continuing the up and down motion, after which the victim stood and pulled up their pants.

Dickey said that Smith could not be sure what was happening unless he had “X-ray vision.”

Smith said that he “could not see anything sexual in nature” but that the boy and the victim had been sitting in the seat together.

On redirect, Clark asked Smith what he had observed the 8-year-old girl tell the bus driver. Smith said that she told the driver that the boy had rubbed her thigh, saying “he touched me like this but in the middle.”

During closing arguments, Dickey asked that the entire criminal complaint be dismissed because the district attorney had not met its burden of proof.

Dickey said that the 12-year-old boy’s age was important because to be considered a perpetrator of child abuse, the actor has to be at least 14 years of age.

“Age is important because children touch each other and do stuff like that,” Dickey said.

Dickey also said that there was “no child abuse because nothing occurred” and that “not a single Commonwealth witness said they saw anything.”

When it came to the failure to report charges, Dickey said that Isgan did report, on Feb. 7.

In Clark’s closing arguments, she asked that all charges be bound to court because Isgan’s failure to report — and only suspending the boy from riding the bus for one day — gave the boy access to “the same vulnerable children in the morning and in the evening.”

She said that Isgan was a mandated reporter and that there were no reports in November, when the assaults began.

“Failing to report endangered all of these children,” Clark said. “(Isgan) knew about it and did nothing.”

Mirror Staff Writer Rachel Foor is at 814-946-7458.