MIAMI — Teacher James Dingle, who had recently relocated to St. Thomas, appeared in a virtual courtroo and agreed to return to Colorado to face prosecution for child sex crimes.
Dingle appeared at the hearing via video conference from a Florida jail cell, after he was detained in that state while traveling from the Virgin Islands to Colorado.
Dingle, 63, was arrested July 13 on a warrant out of Routt County, Colo., and charged with two counts of felony sexual assault on a child by a person in a position of trust.
Routt County Judge James Garrecht advised Dingle of his rights, and heard argument from both attorneys before setting bail.
The prosecutor said that “all of the victims leave bond up to the appropriate judgement of the court. However, they do strongly want protection orders.”
Dingle has no criminal history, but the prosecutor said that “there are some circumstances that warrant a cash or surety bond in this case.”
Dingle was a teacher in Colorado and “after the investigation into this matter was launched and Mr. Dingle lost his employment with the Hayden School District,” he relocated to St. Thomas, the prosecutor said.
Although a warrant was issued for his arrest in Colorado, “we were not able to extradite him or get him picked up on these charges in any way until he happened to be flying back to the mainland when he was subsequently picked up in Florida. So, we do have extradition and transport issues with his current location,” she added.
The prosecutor said Dingle was returning to Colorado to “close out” his affairs before returning to St. Thomas for good, but the public defender said that he was traveling to visit family.
“As far as why he was in the Virgin Islands, he actually was working for a school district there, so he has secured meaningful employment,” Dingle’s public defender said.
“There was nothing suspicious behind his motivation to be there, had he known there was a warrant he would have come back to Colorado earlier.”
Ananta Pancham, communications director at Antilles School on St. Thomas, told The Daily News in an email Tuesday that Dingle had recently been hired but was not actually working at the school at the time of his arrest.
“James Dingle never started work at Antilles, though he did receive an employment contract from us — to begin in August — after he passed a background check. When it came to our attention that he was arrested, we immediately dissolved his contract before he actually worked for the school. Most importantly, he was never in contact with any students,” Pancham wrote.
Dingle’s public defender told the judge Wednesday that he intends to return to Colorado, where he will live with family members far from any alleged victims.
She asked for him to be released on his own personal recognizance and said Dingle “hasn’t had contact with anyone listed in this affidavit for a number of months.”
The public defender added that Dingle “wants to handle this matter, he wants to handle it properly,” and “he understands these are serious charges,” and he’s ready to defend himself in court.
The judge set a $10,000 cash or surety bond, and said Dingle may use the services of a bail bondsman to post that amount so he can be released from jail in Florida.
“My plan is to make bond and then go right to the airport and fly immediately back,” Dingle said.
The judge scheduled Dingle’s next court date for last month but the Superior Court closed August 2 due to high levels of the delta variant in the territory..