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LOGAN, Utah (AP) -- State prosecutors are requesting that six people who say they were sexually abused by an elementary school teacher dating back to the late 1970s be allowed to testify in a trial later this year.
Alan Roy Willey is charged with nine counts of aggravated forcible sex abuse of a child, stemming from alleged 1993-94 incidents in his Wilson Elementary fourth-grade classroom.
He is scheduled to stand trial in October and November.
In a motion filed Friday afternoon, prosecutor Tony Baird requests that evidence of "relevant instances of sexual abuse committed by the defendant against male children" be allowed as trial evidence.
One of the six additional sex abuse incidents Baird refers to happened in the 2004-05 school year in Logan, according to the motion. The other five allegedly occurred in 1977-78 and 1978-79 at Edith Bowen Laboratory School, and in 1985-86, 1986-87 and 1988-89 at East Elementary in St. George. At least three of the incidents were reported to school officials in some way at those times, the motion states, including the 2004-05 allegation at Wilson.
Willey's attorney, Walter Bugden Jr., was not available for comment late Friday afternoon after the motion was filed but is expected to file a motion to refute Baird's later this month. Willey's attorney said last month he stands behind his client's innocence.
Baird argues in the document that the other incidents should be admitted as "proper, non-character evidence to prove modus operandi, plan, intent and lack of mistake."
"There is a great similarity between the crimes ..." the motion reads. "The need for the evidence is also great: without such evidence what is left for trial is a credibility contest between the victim and the defendant. Having other victims testify how the defendant molested them helps to greater establish the credibility of the victim in the instant case and refutes the defense of fabrication."
Willey, 52, taught at Wilson from 1992 until March of this year when he was placed on administrative leave from the Logan City School District after police notified them of the investigation. He taught at Hillcrest Elementary four years prior to that.
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Information from: The Herald Journal, http://www.hjnews.com
(Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
