On Feb. 14, 2011, a security officer at Churchland High School saw a student go out a back door with keys in her hand, then get into the passenger seat of a vehicle in the faculty parking lot.

Darlene Edwards testified Wednesday that a few minutes later in another part of the school, she looked out and saw Cedric Cradle, a teacher and football coach, driving what looked like that same vehicle.

The security officer reported what she saw to administrators, and they began combing through footage from 75 school cameras to check on the whereabouts of both student and teacher.

Jurors saw some of that footage in Circuit Court on Wednesday, the first day of trial for Cradle, 38, who is charged with two counts of indecent liberties while in a supervisory position and two misdemeanor counts of contributing to the delinquency of a minor.

The first witness in the case was the alleged victim, now 17, who testified that she left with Cradle that day and that they had consensual sex at his apartment in Port Norfolk. She was 16 at the time, she said.

She said she had also left school with him and had sexual relations in June 2010, when she was 15.

The Virginian-Pilot does not identify alleged juvenile victims of crimes.

The prosecutor, Derek Colvin, asked her about details she had given the Commonwealth's Attorney's office about a TV on an empty fish tank in Cradle's bedroom and a tattoo and brandings on his body. He showed her photos of the bedroom and the markings on his body and asked her to identify them.

On Feb. 14 of last year, she testified, she had come back into school through a door Cradle left open for her and that he gave her a pass excusing her from class.

Sandra Knight, assistant principal at Churchland, also testified and explained to jurors what the school cameras had captured that day. One showed the girl leave the school about 9 a.m. Another showed Cradle leave a few minutes later through a different exit, she testified.

The footage showed the automobile leaving the property about three minutes after he left and returning about 43 minutes later.

Knight pointed out Cradle re-entering the building about three minutes afterward and the girl coming back through a door that students normally can't access.

She is then seen going into Cradle's office and leaving in a matter of seconds.

Today, Cradle's defense will present its case. In her opening Wednesday,

Cradle's attorney, Carol Adler, said that "exactly one year ago today, Mr. Cradle's world fell apart."

She said the case was based on lies and asked jurors to pay special attention to the credibility of witnesses and the lack of a "thorough investigation."

Cradle resigned from the school before his arrest in March. He was the first of two teachers in the Portsmouth division charged with felonies involving inappropriate relations with students within months last year.

Last month, Marc A. Allmond, 30, a former algebra teacher and junior varsity coach at Norcom High School, pleaded guilty to carnal knowledge of a minor and taking indecent liberties with a minor while in a supervisory relationship.
http://hamptonroads.com/2012/02/trial-exteacher-accused-sex-student-opens