Lycoming County Courthouse
WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. – A former high school principal in Pennsylvania who was acquitted of sexual-assault criminal charges now faces a civil lawsuit, as does the Williamsport Area School District.
A John Doe sued those two and others last week in the Lycoming County Court of Common Pleas, claiming Roger Freed and teacher Michelle Pulizzi “exploited their position of trust and power to groom and sexually abuse” him.
Freed was arrested in 2022 after a former student, Jared Thompson, accused him of a long sexual relationship that started in school. He faced 30 counts of sexual contact with a student and one count of sexual assault, but a court last year found him not guilty.
Freed’s legal team had argued Thompson did not make these allegations until after he was charged with raping a child and had hoped to curry favor with prosecutors by pointing at Freed.
Freed resigned after his acquittal and now faces the civil suit. It is alleged he became the boy’s confidant before ninth grade in 2014, after John Doe’s younger brother died of cancer. During the track season, the two would go out to eat, the suit claims.
John Doe came out to Freed his sophomore year, the suit claims, after Freed had asked. Things progressed to oral sex as Doe practiced driving, it adds, and Freed encouraged Doe to have sex with Pulizzi, who had sent nude pictures to Doe on Snapchat. Further allegations against her include kissing and groping.
Pulizzi pleaded guilty to charges that kept her out of jail, admitting that she had received nude photographs from a student. Doe’s lawsuit said the sexual assault by Freed continued into his college years.
The lawsuit accuses the Williamsport Area School District of allowing students to be trapped in spaces with teachers with whom it had concerns. His track coach, Doe says, told him to stay away from Pulizzi because she was “trouble” but did not fulfill his mandatory duty to report possible assault.
Charges against Freed’s accuser, Thompson, were dropped when the alleged victim, a minor family member, refused to testify. Freed intervened in Thompson’s expungement proceedings and lost his argument in December in the Superior Court.
