Attorney says Iowa City woman didn't file report because she didn't suspect abuse

Susan Freeman-Murdah, the Iowa City mandatory reporter accused of failing to report a case of suspected child abuse to the state, did not shirk her duties, her defense attorney told jurors Tuesday during opening statements of her trial.

She did not make a report to the Iowa Department of Human Services because she did not suspect an incident of child abuse or neglect had occurred, said defense attorney Leon Spies.

“Sue Freeman is accused of having a belief that (the child) had been abused and, knowing that and her responsibilities, deliberately failing to contact DHS,” Spies said, insisting that his client is not guilty of that accusation.

“Sue Freeman is a dedicated professional – there are few people as dedicated,” Spies said. “She is not the type of person to shirk her legal obligations.”

Spies pointed out to the jury that Freeman-Murdah, director of the Iowa City-based Broadway Neighborhood Center, wasn't the only person with the organization who chose not to contact the state or local authorities about the complaint. The executive director of the Neighborhood Centers of Johnson County also didn't make a report, and an administrative assistant and another teacher at the center didn't contact the state either, Spies said.

None of them thought the complaint warranted a report, Spies said, and the state has since determined the allegation of abuse is unfounded.

But Assistant Johnson County Attorney Meredith Rich-Chappell said none of that matters. When the mother came to the center in December with concerns that her 3-year-old daughter had been sexually abused by an assistant teacher at the center, Freeman-Murdah had a responsibility to contact the Department of Human Services, Rich-Chappell said.

“Ultimately, the allegations about (the child) being abused by a specific person in a specific place is not in question,” Rich-Chappell said. “It's whether there was sufficient information that Freeman-Murdah knew about on Dec. 12 that would require her to make a report of what she knew.”

Freeman-Murdah, 44, was arrested Feb. 1 on suspicion of a charge of failure to report, a simple misdemeanor. State officials have said they're watching the Johnson County trial closely as Freeman-Murdah's arrest is the first in the state of a mandatory reporter accused of failing to report.

According to authorities, the mother originally reported the alleged abuse to another teacher, an administrative assistant and then Freeman-Murdah. The director is accused of conducting her own investigation and deciding it didn't warrant a report.

Spies, her defense attorney, said Freeman-Murdah didn't dismiss the allegations without looking into them. She talked to the teacher and checked their schedules to see if they were in the classroom alone at the same time.

“When this information got to Sue Freeman, she didn't just sit on it,” Spies said.  “Freeman didn't ignore, disrespect or disregard (the mother's account).”

In fact, Spies said, Freeman-Murdah confirmed the mother's decision to report the suspected abuse and said her child is safe at the center.

But Rich-Chappell said the mother felt Freeman-Murdah dismissed her concerns, in part, based on the fact that the mother had been sexually assaulted as a child.

“(Freeman-Murdah) did not believe there was credible information that (the child) had been abused by (the teacher) in her classroom,” Rich-Chappell said. “At that point, the investigation by Freeman ended.”

The mother testified in court Tuesday that Freeman-Murdah “didn't do no type of comforting” when she came to her with concerns.

She explained that she suspected her toddler had been abused after the child started kissing her “passionately” out of nowhere. The mother said she was taken aback and asked the child where she learned that. The child named her teacher, the mother testified.

The mother said she previously noticed a rash in her daughter's private areas, and she once came home with her underwear on inside out and backwards.

After expressing her concerns, the mother said she felt Freeman-Murdah “was more worried about (the teacher's) well being than my daughter's.”

Michael Crowley, a teacher at the Broadway center who worked with the teacher accused of committing sexual abuse, backed up his colleague during his testimony Tuesday. He said the mother's complaint that his coworker had sexually assaulted the child “did not seem credible.”

If someone did show the toddler how to kiss “passionately,” Crowley said, “It was probably one of my three year old boys.”

Crowley said, however, that he referred the report to Freeman-Murdah, who he said did not report it to the state or authorities. When asked why Crowley didn't report the case to the state himself, he said, “I didn't report it because I didn't think anything happened.”

“I did not know that, as a mandatory reporter, I had to report things I didn't believe,” he said.

The six jurors and one alternate, four women and two men, have been asked to return at 9 a.m. Wednesday for more testimony. Freeman-Murdah's defense attorney told jurors that his client will take the stand to testify in her own defense.