MIDLAND, Texas — One current and two former Midland Christian School employees were arrested and indicted Thursday for failure to make a required child abuse report, according to court records.
Dana Ellis, Jared Lee and Matthew Counts all posted a $5,000 bond the same day they were arrested.
The accusations stem from an incident that is reported to have happened in November 2021, according to indictment paperwork.
The three were previously arrested for failure to report with intent to conceal neglect or abuse back in February 2022, along with two other employees, for separate accusations.
That assault reportedly involved a sexual assault of a student by members of the baseball team at Christensen Stadium in January 2022.
All five employees were later no-billed by a grand jury in May 2022.
In August 2022, the employees filed a federal lawsuit against the City of Midland and three Midland police officers, alleging the situation caused severe damage to their reputations and professional careers.
The city later filed a motion to dismiss that lawsuit.
Jeff Parras, attorney for Matthew Counts, sent out the following press release in response to the new charges:
MCS released a statement Friday expressing their support for Counts, Lee and Ellis and calling the charges false:
"Midland Christian School Family,
Yesterday we learned that one of our employees, Matt Counts, along with two of our former employees, Jared Lee and Dana Ellis, were indicted on charges initiated by the Midland Police Department regarding an accident at school unrelated to the prior false charges that were dismissed in May. The accusations for these new charges were known prior to Wednesday’s Grand Jury decision, but we are intensely disappointed and frustrated by the decision to bring an indictment. We know Matt to be an upstanding member of the Midland community, an excellent teacher, coach, and mentor to our students and MCS families. The charges brought against Matt, Jared, and Dana are false based on the facts as we know them and we stand in complete support of an aggressive defense of their innocence. The Board of Trustees has diligently worked through the proper channels to ensure that Matt is allowed to remain on our campus, serving in his role as an educator and coach, while he awaits due process.
We trust in the Lord and maintain our faith that He will be glorified through this tough situation. We pray that we see His deliverance for the people we care about to come quickly and solicit your support and prayers for the Counts, Lee, and Ellis families.
As information becomes available, the Board of Trustees, along with President Anderson, will continue to update the Midland Christian School community."
This is all the information we have at this time. We have requested more documents and will update this story when more details are released.