Jury split in verdicts for Norwin teacher, husband in middle school musical case

A Westmoreland County jury acquitted a Norwin Middle School teacher of failure to comply with child protective service laws but found her husband guilty of a similar charge.

The jury deliberated more than five hours Tuesday before it rendered its mixed verdict to clear English teacher Tobitha Sasso, 42, of Greensburg of two misdemeanor charges.

Her husband, Brad Geyer, 39, was convicted of one misdemeanor offense. He will be sentenced in about three months by Common Pleas Court Judge Meagan Bilik-DeFazio.

Sasso served as director of the school theater club’s performances of the musical “Frozen Jr.” in February 2020.

Police said she permitted Geyer to serve as a volunteer during final rehearsals for the performances even though he was ineligible to do so because of his arrest in 2018 and conviction a year later of crimes involving children.

Geyer was accused of failing to update school officials of his legal status. Sasso was charged as an accomplice when she allowed him to volunteer despite knowing about the arrest and conviction, prosecutors said.

Parents, students and several Norwin staffers testified during the three-day trial that Geyer assisted in the final preparations leading up to the performances.

Witnesses said Geyer gave instructions to students and staff. Surveillance video showed to jurors appeared to depict him speaking with at least one student cast member.

“Students told you they thought they had to do what Brad Geyer said,” Assistant District Attorney Theresa Sporrer-Miller said during her closing argument to the jury.

Neither Geyer nor Sasso testified during the trial.

Geyer was charged in 2018 with multiple sex crimes involving children for incidents that police said took place between 2015 and 2017 in Connellsville. He pleaded guilty in 2019 to lesser counts of corruption of a minor and furnishing alcohol to a child. He was ordered to serve three years on probation.

Defense attorney Shane Gannon, representing Geyer, told jurors his client was merely an onlooker during rehearsals for “Frozen Jr.” and had minimal contact with students and only was present to support Sasso.

“He’s allowed to be around children, to talk to children. The government wants to make this into a case it’s not,” Gannon said. “Is it creepy to support your girlfriend, fiancée and now wife? That’s called being a good husband, and that doesn’t make him a volunteer.”

Gannon and Geyer declined to comment about the verdict.

Sasso’s lawyer, Brian Aston, argued no crimes were committed.

“We never said he wasn’t there,” Aston said. “He simply wasn’t a volunteer.”

Aston said it has not been determined whether Sasso will seek to return to her teaching job in the Norwin School District. She was suspended after the criminal charges were filed.