Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - 20 Elementary School Staffers Charged with Abuse | Crime Alert 04.22.25

Episode Date: April 22, 2025

20 elementary school staffers charged with abuse for "safety" holds targeting pressure points. Stolen pup tracked down and safely returned to her owner! For more crime and justice news go to crimeonline.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

You're listening to an iHeart Podcast. Crime Alert, I'm Nancy Grace. Breaking crime news now. Surveillance cameras inside Chester Community Charter School, Delaware County, PA, catch around 100 incidents of child abuse involving 26 children, some as young as five. The footage, mostly from the school's special needs, quote, positive support room, prompting investigation that leads to charges against 20 school employees. The investigation begins when a parent contacts Dennis Monzioni, the school's director of special programs, reporting their seven-year-old child's afraid to go to school. Monzioni relays this to Principal Philip Meitner.

Then another seven-year-old student's parents come forward. Nancy, the second child, revealed he was afraid of being put in a hold at school. Surveillance cameras show nine school staffers physically restraining students in kindergarten through fifth grade, pinching them, holding painful pressure points near their necks, and even pushing children to the ground by holding them by the wrists and putting a knee on their back. Eleven more employees are facing charges for failing to inform anyone of the abuse. District Attorney Jax Dolstheimer called the situation a nightmare, saying adults should be expected to keep school children safe, not abuse them physically and emotionally. Under state guidelines, what peak performer staffing solutions are calling

safety holds must be reported each time they are employed. The school reported no such holds in 2024 when much of the abuse is alleged to have occurred. Nine of 20 staffers face assault, false imprisonment and endangering children charges. The other 11 charged with failing to report abuse. Austin Evanson stops at a Prescott Valley, Arizona store to get a drink. Inside, her French bulldog, Kimber, accidentally rolls down a window and jumps out. Seems Evanson left her truck running. Surveillance video shows dog Kimber wandering near the store. A white Lexus SUV pulls up, parks beside the truck, picks up Kimber without trying to find the owner, and drives away.

Police ID the SUV license plate through a license reader system. Within hours, a suspect and bulldog found. One arrested, the other now riding shotgun with mom. More crime and justice news after this. How could a beautiful young first grade teacher be stabbed 20 times, including in the back, allegedly die of suicide? Yes, that was the medical examiner's official ruling. After a closed door meeting, he first named it a homicide. Why? What happened to Ellen Greenberg? A huge American miscarriage of justice. For an in-depth look at the facts, see what happened to Ellen on Amazon. All proceeds to the National Center for Missing

and Exploited Children. Now with the latest crime and justice breaking news, Crime Online's John Limley. A federal grand jury in Manhattan has indicted Luigi Mangione for the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, a charge that could carry the death penalty. Prosecutors say 26-year-old Mangione shot Thompson outside a Manhattan hotel in December, just before an investor meeting. Surveillance video captured a masked gunman firing from behind. Police say the

ammunition was etched with the words, delay, deny, and depose, a phrase linked to insurance claim denials. The indictment follows U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi's directive to seek capital punishment, the first under President Trump's renewed federal execution policy. Bondi called the killing, quote, an act of political violence. Mangione's lawyers argue the move was a political stunt that tainted the grand jury process. They're asking the court to suppress evidence, including a notebook allegedly outlying plans target a health insurance executive. Mangione, who comes from a prominent Maryland family, is being held in federal custody. He also faces state murder charges.

Prosecutors say both cases will proceed in parallel. A rare legal case is unfolding in Georgia, where the father of an alleged school shooter is facing serious charges himself. As Crime Online's Sydney Sumner explains, a judge has now ruled the trial will be moved from the county where the attack occurred. Colin Gray, the father of 14-year-old Colt Gray, the accused gunman in the Appalachee High School shooting, will not face trial in Barrow County. Both prosecutors and Gray's defense agreed the local jury pool has been too affected by the September 4th attack, which left four people dead and nine others injured. Colin Gray has pleaded not guilty to 29 counts, including second-degree murder and involuntary manslaughter. Prosecutors say he gifted his son an assault-style rifle for Christmas,

despite knowing the teen was in crisis and fascinated with past school shootings. Investigators say Colt kept a shrine to the Parkland gunman above his home computer. The shooting claimed the lives of two students, Mason Shermerhorn and Christian Angulo, both 14, and teachers Richard Aspinwall and Christina Irimi. Gray's defense attorney, Jimmy Berry, has suggested moving the trial to Thomas County in South Georgia, where media coverage may have been less intense. Prosecutors floated Walton County closer to the scene, but Judge Nick Prim hasn't ruled, raising the possibility that either jurors will be brought in from elsewhere or the entire trial relocated. Still ahead, a decision on where Colin Gray's trial will take place and how far it may go to ensure a fair

jury. Thanks, John. David Crabtree, just 13, is his older brother's shadow. When James goes out for football, so does David. When James starts pitching for baseball, David follows in his footsteps. As James gets older and earns more independence, David doesn't understand why he can't have the same curfew. He's caught sneaking out of his Locust Grove, Oklahoma home several times. April 8, David tells his family he loves them and goes to bed. Three boys wait outside the window. David climbs out and vanishes. His parents immediately report him missing, but police label him a runaway, and the Crabtree family feels his case was not

given the right amount of attention. David Cherokee, 5'5", 125 pounds, black hair, brown eyes, wearing a gray shirt, black pants. If you have info on David Crabtree, who would be 38 today, please call Locust Grove, Oklahoma PD, 918-479-2121. For the latest crime and justice news, go to crimeonline.com and please join us for our daily podcast, Crime Stories. We do our best to find missing people, especially children, and solve unsolved homicides. With this crime alert, I'm Nancy Grace. You're listening to an iHeart Podcast.