PRESS RELEASE. DATE: January 18, 2019 RE: State v. Scibek BY: David Scibek PHONE: 802-860-6225 EMAIL: mbfdchief@gmail.com Today, the State has finally done the right thing and dismissed the criminal case against me. | have lost almost 14 months of my life fighting and defending myself against this baseless and uncorroborated charge. After serving for over 35 years in emergency services, including 22 of them in law enforcement, and being charged with a crime that | did not commit has caused me and my family immeasurable trauma, stress and anxiety. Ihave received absolutely no support from my employer, the Burlington School District. have not worked for over a year and am still on unpaid administrative leave, which includes having my health insurance and all benefits cut off. On the day of this event, | was informed that | was being placed on administrative leave and they did not even want to hear my side of the story, despite my offering i. They simply accused me of choking a student and throwing her to the ground. They exercised no due diligence by making this unilateral and uninformed decision and | have suffered for it. The true victims here are my students. Despite their honest and forthright cooperation with the investigation, they were either ignored or their statements were inappropriately modified to support the State's baseless charge against me. They have been denied access to their education by having substitute teachers with no expertise in Criminal Justice assigned to them. They did not receive the education they signed up for and that was promised them. |, too, was denied access to my students while this criminal charge was pending against me. | thank my students for their support, patience, and understanding. Being disconnected and isolated from them for so long has been very painful and traumatic for me as well as them. Thank you for your honesty and support of me in this very trying time. My wife, Nadine and | want to thank our family, friends, colleagues, and the public for showing us such incredible support during this trying year. This unwavering support and love is appreciated beyond words. We could not have gotten through this without you. Ihave dedicated my entire adult life to helping others and serving the Community. | do so willingly and with professionalism, competence, and strong ethical standards. This case has been a horrifying and unconscionable example of unprofessionalism and incompetence. You do not do this to honest, hard-working, law-abiding citizens.