Last week, after about 15 months, the court case against fired Marlboro Assistant Principal Dara Kaplan was ‘dismissed in the interest of justice’ by Marlboro Judge Daniel Jackson, according to ADA Dan Martuscello who prosecuted the case. This comes a week after it was reported that Elementary Principal Patricia Walsh, who was put on Administrative Leave, filed a lawsuit against the Marlboro School District, claiming her rights were violated and that she should be reinstated to her former position.

Martuscello said, “a motion was made by the defendant [Kaplan], I had opposed it, but the Judge ruled to dismiss it. It’s not a dismissal on the merits [but] he felt it didn’t need to go any further.”

Martuscello explained that for this type of a dismissal, “there is different criteria the court will consider that the defendant puts forward as to why the court should dismiss.” He said the Judge considered the defendant’s argument that resulted in the dismissal.

In the fall of 2021 Dara Kaplan, then the Elementary School Assistant Principal, was being considered for tenure but in November 2021 the district alleged that she went into Walsh’s office and sent an antisemitic email to herself using Walsh’s computer.

Kaplan was subsequently arrested by the State Police and charged with violating Section 156.05 of the Penal Law of State of New York, which states that “A person is guilty of unauthorized use of a computer when he or she knowingly uses, causes to be used, or accesses a computer, computer service or computer network without authorization. Unauthorized use of a computer is a class A misdemeanor.” The incident in question took place on or about November 23, 2021 at about 10:54 am.

There were a number of investigations that followed, one showing that Kaplan would have had to go into Walsh’s office, access her computer and send the email in 47 seconds. Affidavits from two school employees, who were in the Main office at the time, state that they did not observe Kaplan entering Walsh’s office.

Another review by Michael Bakatsias, Assistant Superintendent for Technology and Personnel, concluded that, “While I have no direct evidence to conclude that Dara Kaplan went into Patricia Walsh’s computer and sent the email to herself, a preponderance of the evidence (including video) puts her in the location and not Patricia Walsh (who was out of her office). Without responses to questions that exist, the matter of Dara Kaplan or someone else sending the email is inconclusive.”

The record is also not clear on a motive for sending an anti-Semitic email.

Bakatsias also noted that he interviewed 10 employees at the Marlboro Elementary School and, “in review of the evidence gathered, a preponderance of the evidence does not support that Patricia Walsh maintains a climate that is antisemitic...stating that this claim is “unfounded.”

Walsh has filed suit against the school district, seeking reinstatement as elementary school principal in the wake of the incident in which she was initially placed on administrative leave and later, re-assigned serve in a “quasi-administrative capacity from the Central Office.” The school board later appointed Jena Thomas to the position of elementary school principal.