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LOGAN, Utah (AP) -- A 1st District judge will allow two witnesses who say they were sexually abused by an elementary school teacher to testify in a sexual abuse trial later this month.
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.
State prosecutors originally hoped to have six people who say they were sexually abused by Willey dating back to the late 1970s.
All six testified in an evidentiary hearing last week, saying they had been abused while in Willey's classes.
But 1st District Judge Clint Judkins ruled that only two -- men in their early 30s -- would be allowed to testify and that they would be limited in what they could say.
In a motion, Judkins wrote that allowing all six witnesses would be too prejudicial.
Judkins chose the two men because they "testified distinctly to what had transpired during the abuse, the abuse is similar in nature to the alleged abuse in this case, both of these witnesses spoke to a parent about the abuse, and the abuse was reported to school authorities."
Willey, 52, has taught at Wilson Elementary since 1992 and worked at Hillcrest Elementary for four years prior to that. He also taught in St. George during the mid-1980s. One of the two men who will testify was a student of Willey's in St. George.
Willey was placed on administrative leave by the Logan School District in March after police notified the district of an ongoing investigation.
The charges stem from a claim by a man, now in his 20s, who contacted police last spring and said that when in he was in Willey's class in 1994 he was inappropriately touched almost every day.
Willey has pleaded not guilty. His trial begins Oct. 25. His attorney, Walter Bugden Jr., was not available for comment.
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Information from: The Herald Journal, http://www.hjnews.com
(Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
