McElroy remains jailed as trial delayed

The NHC Healthcare wrongful death case cleared the Circuit Court docket for three weeks and created a ripple effect. Among other postponements, it forced the case against a Van Buren County teacher accused of having a sexual affair with a 14-year-old student to be continued.

The defendant, Johnny Lee McElroy, 55, was to go to trial last week. However, given the fact Circuit Court Judge Bart Stanley was detained hearing the NHC suit at Warren County Courthouse, the case could not go to trial at its scheduled date.

According to District Attorney General Lisa Zavogiannis, the delay will mean a new trial date will have to be set for the accused teacher, a date which will be set during a meeting at Van Buren County Courthouse on Feb. 26. The district attorney said she is unsure exactly when the trial will be set.

In the meantime, McElroy remains held at Van Buren County Jail where he has been an inmate awaiting trial for one year, unable to make his $495,000 bond. His case has drawn questions and comparisons to Centertown teacher Pamela Rogers, who was freed on $50,000 bond pending trial for similar allegations involving a 13-year-old boy.

McElroy was arrested around the same time Rogers was being freed from Warren County Jail on probation after she served roughly six months of her overall sentence. He was arrested after allegations of a sexual affair with a 14-year-old girl came to light.

McElroy, who had been with the school system since 1998 and is also a Church of Christ preacher, was a high school teacher. He first met his alleged victim a few years before the incidents when he taught her in the sixth grade at Van Buren County Middle School.

He was not her teacher at the time of the sexual affair. The victim is now 15. Investigators say the sexual contact between the two happened in numerous places, including his classroom during school hours, at the city park and in a moving vehicle.