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Stamford High Principal Donna Valentine and Assistant Principal Roth Nordin were arrested in October, and each was charged with one misdemeanor count of failing to report to the state Department of Children and Families allegations that teacher Danielle Watkins had carried on a sexual relationship with one of her 18-year-old male students.
Valentine and Nordin were granted accelerated rehabilitation on the charge by Superior Court Judge Richard Comerford on Nov. 19. It will allow them to have no criminal records if they have no further legal problems in the next two years.
Watkins, 32, was arrested in July. The Norwalk resident accepted a plea agreement in December on a second-degree sexual assault charge. She faces a prison term of up to four years when sentenced Jan. 22. The guilty plea calls for her to be placed on the state’s Sex Offender Registry for 10 years.
Stamford Public Schools Superintendent Winifred Hamilton announced in December that Valentine and Nordin will not be returning to Stamford High School. Their status will be determined after an independent investigation, Hamilton said.
In other shocking news in Stamford, Shota Mekoshvili, a 29-year-old Stamford man, was charged with murder in the death of a cab driver Aug. 27.
Mahomed Kamal, 47, was found stabbed to death after a violent struggle on the lawn of 150 Doolittle Road by landscapers in the morning, police said. Kamal worked for Stamford Taxi. His murder shocked other cab drivers and members of the close-knit Bangladeshi community in the city.
In another murder, Andre Quinn Russell, 20, of 83 Ludlow St., was charged in the early June slaying of William "Buttons" James, 46. James was shot in the back of the head at close range while in a crowd at Pacific Street and Woodland Place in what police believed may have been a drug-related killing.
Police have also been dealing with two groups of young men based in the city who have carried on a feud with a spate of shootings, including one in broad daylight on Myano Lane in early December just as school children were returning home.
In political news in Stamford, a couple of newcomers entered the scene as Democrats Terry Adams and Caroline Simmons were elected to the state House of Representatives.
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