Editor’s note: This story has been updated.
WHITE RIVER JUNCTION — The former South Royalton School principal who earlier pleaded not guilty to surreptitiously recording five teenage girls while they were staying at his Sharon home will change his plea next month.
Although Dean Stearns, 56, has signaled his intention to change his plea at a Dec. 11 hearing in Windsor Superior Court, it isn’t clear what the change will be.
Windsor County Attorney David Cahill said he couldn’t go into specifics, but said Stearns won’t be sentenced at his plea hearing. A separate hearing will take place at a later date.
“It is expected that the sentencing hearing will be contested,” Cahill said. “The parties are expected to argue what punitive sanctions are appropriate given the conduct at issue, including how much jail time.”
A message left for defense attorney Michael Shane wasn’t returned.
Stearns, who remains free on bail, stands charged with six felony counts of promoting sexual recordings and 30 misdemeanor counts of voyeurism.
Prosecutors last November first charged Stearns with one count each of promoting a sexual recording and voyeurism, accusing him of recording a girl inside her bedroom and bathroom while she was staying in his home. Further investigation found evidence of a total of five victims, which led to additional charges.
Investigators recovered a total of 205 pictures and video files depicting partially or fully nude teenage girls as they changed, showered and used the bathroom in Stearns’ home, according to the Vermont State Police Technology Investigation Unit’s analysis report.
Investigators discovered the content on several devices they seized from his home, including devices that looked like a cellphone charger, alarm clock and night light, but which all had hidden cameras embedded in them, according to an affidavit in his court file.
The fake cellphone charger guided the first victim to police, after she became suspicious when she found that someone had plugged the charger — which didn’t work — back into the wall in her bathroom.
Upon further examination of the charger, she found the hidden camera, prompting her to tell an adult, who went to police, the affidavit said.
Stearns told police in an interview that he bought the hidden camera devices online and placed them in the girl’s bedroom and bathroom in October 2017, according to the affidavit.
Authorities discovered additional devices with photos and videos during their investigation. Four other victims were identified. The girls ranged in age from 14 to 17 when the alleged incidents occurred.
One of the girls lived with Stearns and his wife in the fall of 2016 and another lived there for about four months in 2017. The three other girls visited the Stearns’ residence in 2017.
At least two of the girls were under the age of 16 at the time they were allegedly victimized, prompting the felony charges.
Investigators later swept the school and said they found no evidence of hidden cameras.
In October 2017, Stearns announced his intention to resign as principal at the end of the school year amid complaints from teachers about a “stressful workplace climate,” a decision that followed an approved merger between the Royalton and Bethel school districts. In his resignation letter, he cited “personal and professional reasons”
However, after he appeared in court in November, he resigned, effective immediately, in early December.
Read the story on VTDigger here: Former South Royalton principal may change plea in voyeurism case.