Testimony of prior relationship with student OKd for Babylon High School teacher's rape trial
Babylon High School teacher Timothy Harrison leaves Suffolk County Court in Riverhead with his wife on March 23, 2022 after being indicted on rape charges.. Credit: James Carbone
The judge in the upcoming trial of a Babylon High School teacher accused of raping a 15-year-old student at his home in 2013 will allow testimony about an alleged prior sexual relationship between the teacher and another student.
Suffolk Supreme Court Justice Karen Wilutis agreed with prosecutors that testimony about the sexual relationship special education teacher Timothy Harrison allegedly had with an 18-year-old Babylon High student in 2012 would reveal the 15-year-old's “state of mind" at the time.
Prosecutors have previously said Harrison had a sexual relationship with the 18-year-old student, but no charges were filed since she was above the age of consent.
In making her ruling, Wilutis wrote that the noncriminal relationship would add "context" to why the alleged victim in his criminal case waited nearly a decade to disclose her allegations against Harrison.
Wilutis on Monday set a Sept. 14 trial date.
Harrison is accused of serving the 15-year-old girl alcohol and having sex with her, prosecutors have said. The ruling states the girl told a grand jury she had prior knowledge of his relationship with the older student and “was also aware that [Harrison’s] wife, also a teacher in the school, had been harassing the [student] after she learned of the sexual relationship.”
The girl told the grand jury that rumors about the earlier relationship “were rampant throughout the school,” the judge wrote.
“This evidence would assist the jury to place the [alleged rape victim’s] actions in context and complete the narrative,” Wilutis wrote in granting the prosecution’s motion to allow testimony about the previous alleged relationship.
Harrison’s attorney, Kevin Keating of Garden City, had argued his client’s prior conduct with the 18-year-old student was between two consenting adults and therefore not illegal, and any “probative value of this testimony would be substantially outweighed by the prejudice to the defendant,” Wilutis noted in her ruling.
“Uncharged criminal acts are not admissible at trial in order to show the defendant’s propensity to commit crimes or to sully the defendant’s character," Wilutis wrote, "however, this testimony may be admissible in order to prove motive, intent, modus operandi, identity, a common plan or scheme, or some other articulable reason to help complete the narrative or provide background information."
Keating could not be reached for comment Tuesday.
Harrison, 47, of Oak Beach, was arrested in March 2022, four months after the 15-year-old student told police she had a sexual relationship with him between September and November 2013, police said at the time.
He was later indicted on two counts of third-degree rape and two counts of third-degree criminal sexual act, felony charges that each carry a sentence of up to four years in prison. A fifth charge is endangering the welfare of a child, a misdemeanor.
Prosecutors said at his arraignment last year that in 2013, Harrison, then 38, began texting the student. The pair then had sex at his home on two occasions, prosecutors said at the time.
In her ruling, Wilutis said she will also allow the prosecution to elicit testimony about an incident at the school in which Harrison allegedly touched the girl's inner and outer thigh as well as her private area.
Prosecutors will not, however, be allowed to cross-examine Harrison on “these uncharged bad acts” should he testify at trial, Wilutis ruled.
Harrison’s indictment followed October 2021 allegations made by former students who said they were sexually harassed and abused by some of their teachers in the Babylon district.
Soon afterward, the district hired a former Suffolk County prosecutor, Chris Powers, to investigate the claims and placed five employees, including Harrison, who also coached basketball and lacrosse at the school, on paid administrative leave.
Grant Parpan covers Suffolk County courts and federal courts for Newsday. A Long Island native, he joined Newsday in 2022.
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