A conservative independent seeking a House of Delegates seat from Appomattox says when she was a junior high teacher 40 years ago she had an affair with a female student but that she was a "different person" back then.
In an Associated Press interview on Wednesday, Linda Wall confirmed her sworn 2006 testimony in a lawsuit in which she admitted to "sexual relations with a minor" in the early 1970s when she taught physical education in Prince George County. Wall, 61, said the affair was a long-ago, youthful mistake, not who she is now.
"I've never tried to hide that I was in homosexuality. If anybody Googles me, they would find that out there," Wall said.
"Forty years ago I was a different person. I was a heavy pot smoker with ... impaired judgment and made some bad choices," she said. "You do that out of college sometimes. Some people do, some people don't."
She credits a Christian conversion years ago with turning her from drugs and changing her sexual orientation. She also has lobbied Virginia's General Assembly on behalf of the conservative Family Foundation, a staunch opponent of same-sex marriage, adoption by same-sex couples and abortion.
Wall resigned from the school after the district superintendent confronted her about the affair, according to the transcript deposition. She was never criminally charged.
She declined to identify the school or its location in Prince George, saying she did not wish to risk identifying or traumatizing the girl who had been her partner.
There is no statute of limitations on most felonies in Virginia, so Wall still could be prosecuted, said Prince George County police Sgt. Michael Taber. But for that to happen, the victim would have to come forward and file a complaint, he said.
"If it's a felony — especially on a sexual offense — there's not going to be an expiration on that," Taber said.
The determination of whether Wall is charged is up to the local commonwealth's attorney, not police. An after-hours call and email to the attorney was not immediately returned.
The disclosure came two weeks before the election in which Wall, Democrat Connie Brennan and Republican Matt Fariss are vying for the vacant seat of Del. Watkins M. Abbitt Jr., an independent from Appomattox who is retiring after 26 years in the House.
The AP obtained the opening portion of Wall's deposition from former Republican candidate Paul Jost, who sued Wall and state Sen. Thomas K. Norment Jr., R-James City, for defamation over claims made in a bitter 2003 GOP primary when Jost unsuccessfully challenged Norment.
"I did it because it shows Linda Wall is not fit to hold public office," said Jost, who moved to Florida several years ago but retains business interests in Hampton Roads.
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