A former McCaskey High School teacher serving up to 30 years in prison for sexual assaults of two students will get no relief from Pennsylvania’s highest court.
The state Supreme Court recently denied Christy Lee Smith’s petition to file an appeal.
Smith, serving a 14-to-30-year sentence ordered last year by Lancaster County President Judge Dennis Reinaker, had her appeal denied earlier this year by the state Superior Court.
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In turn, Smith filed a petition to appeal to the high court, claiming the sentence was inappropriate.
She argued:
- Reinaker should’ve recused himself from her case because he also sentenced the victim in a separate criminal matter.
- Details of the victim’s criminal history should’ve been allowed at trial. That history included a conviction for home burglaries. The defense argued that was how the victim knew the layout of Smith’s apartment, as he testified at trial.
The Superior Court ruled previously that Reinaker showed no bias in the case, and that details of the victim’s criminal history weren’t appropriate for trial.
Smith was convicted twice – the first conviction and sentence were overturned on appeal – of sex abuse against a McCaskey sophomore and a Solanco High School student, in 2008 and 2009.
Assistant District Attorney Karen Mansfield prosecuted the case.
MEDIA CONTACT: Brett A. Hambright, 717-295-2041; bhambright@co.lancaster.pa.us; Twitter: @BrettHambright