Ex-Upper Darby elementary school principal found not guilty of sexually assaulting former students
Two teens told police that Jonathan Wisneski, a former principal at Primos Elementary School in Clifton Heights, had groped their breasts and buttocks in 2018. A jury found their testimony unreliable
A Delaware County jury on Thursday acquitted a former principal at Primos Elementary School of sexually assaulting two underage students in 2018.
Jonathan Wisneski, 45, was charged in 2022 with indecent assault, sexual contact with a student, endangering the welfare of a child, and related crimes after two girls, now 17 and 14, told police he groped their breasts and buttocks inside his office at the school.
The teens, who are cousins, were in fifth and fourth grades at the time of the alleged assaults.
Wisneski’s attorney, William Davis, contended during the trial that the teens were unreliable witnesses who provided details that could not be corroborated and were, in one instance, false.
Davis said Friday that Wisneski feels vindicated by the jury’s verdict, and is looking forward to moving past the stigma the case had brought to his life.
“He maintained from the beginning that he was completely innocent, and the jury saw that,” Davis said. “His life has been on hold because of this: He was a 15-year educator working on his doctorate when he was arrested, and then he suddenly couldn’t work in the field he had dedicated his life to.”
Officials at the Upper Darby School District had investigated Wisneski in 2018 after complaints were made about his interactions with some students, including the older teen, and faculty, according to court testimony. They — and the district attorney’s office — found that there wasn’t enough evidence to bring criminal charges, but Wisneski was fired.
Four years later, the older teen went to police alleging sexual assaults and saying she had recently remembered more details. Her cousin joined her, reporting that she, too, had been assaulted by Wisneski.
The older teen testified during this week’s trial that Wisneski invited her to his office at the school at least six times and groped her breasts and buttocks while hugging her. She also said he once placed his hand on her thigh near her genitals.
The teen also testified that Wisneski once slapped her in the face when she refused to sit in his lap, an incident she said had been witnessed by other students. But Davis, Wisneski’s lawyer, said that was untrue and the other students denied seeing her being slapped.
“For an 11-year-old girl to be slapped in the face in a school and no one to see it is a totally unbelievable story,” Davis said. “No one saw him do anything that made them feel uncomfortable.”
The 14-year-old testified that Wisneski had touched her buttocks and grabbed her arm roughly. She also said Wisneski asked her to play “butt ball,” a game in which she bounced a ball on her backside in his office.
She admitted in court that she had misled investigators: She had invented the game, and Wisneski had asked her not to do it in front of him.