Rick Berrott, a Plum High School teacher and union representative, testified Thursday before a grand jury investigating what, if anything, school officials knew about three teachers accused of having sex with as many as eight female students over eight years.
Allegheny County District Attorney Stephen A. Zappala, Jr. has said he's concerned school administrators might have known about the inappropriate sexual contact but did not report it to authorities.
Berrott, who told the Tribune-Review in April that he was an “open book,” was accompanied by his attorney, Joseph V. Charlton. They declined to comment. Plum police Chief Jeffrey Armstrong and Plum School District business manager Eugene Marraccini attended the grand jury proceedings.
Plum High School teachers Jason Cooper, 38, and Joseph Ruggieri, 41, were charged in February with institutional sexual assault, accused of having inappropriate sexual contact with female students.
In September, a former substitute teacher and Plum baseball coach, Michael Frank Cinefra, 29, was arrested and charged with deviate sexual intercourse with a 15-year-old girl.
Previous witnesses to the grand jury include: High school teacher Dennis Swogger, who reported concerns about Cooper that led to the arrests; former JROTC instructor Scott Kolar, who sent a letter to school board members saying he had alerted administrators to concerns much earlier; and former school board member Joseph Tommarello, who said he had expressed concerns about Ruggieri to school superintendent Timothy Glasspool three years before the arrests.
The school has disputed Tommarello's account.
School district solicitor Lee Price said the information Tommarello gave Glasspool in 2012 was “not new information — it was a rumor that had already been investigated.”
Price said Tommarello's claim that he expressed concerns to Glasspool again in 2014 is not accurate.
“Superintendent Timothy Glasspool had no conversation with Mr. Tommarello and has no documentation of any exchange in 2014,” Price said.
Karen Zapf is a staff writer for Trib Total Media. She can be reached at 412-871-2367 or kzapf@tribweb.com.
