An Alamance County superior court judge has granted a motion to compel the Alamance County district attorney’s office to provide immigration paperwork to the attorneys for a former Eastlawn Elementary School principal who is charged with sexually assaulting a child at the school in 2023.
At a hearing in superior court Friday morning, judge C. Douglas Green directed Alamance County assistant D.A. Elizabeth Olivier to turn over all materials related to the “U-Visa” application filed by the family of the alleged victim to the attorneys for the former principal, Daniel (“Dan”) Stephen McInnis, 45, white, male, of Burlington.
McInnis is charged with a felony statutory sex offense with a child by an adult; sexual activity with a student by school personnel; and indecent liberties with a child. He is also charged with misdemeanor sexual battery.
McInnis, who appeared at the hearing on Friday with his attorneys, John Cox of Graham and Lisa Dubs of Hickory, has denied the allegations since his arrest on December 29, 2023. He rejected a plea offer from the prosecutor – to plead guilty to a crime against nature, with a sentence of probation – during a separate hearing in superior court last Monday.
Olivier had said at an earlier hearing that there was no information related to U-Visa in the court file, but earlier this month sent an email to Cox acknowledging that the victim’s family had applied for a U-Visa.
“Based on a recent conversation I had with the parents of the victim, there was a [U-Visa application filed],” Olivier acknowledged in an April 6 email to Cox. “I do not have any paperwork on it,” she wrote, adding that the request for assistance with a U-Visa would’ve gone through another ADA who has since left the district attorney’s office.
“I reached out to the immigration attorney to obtain what was sent to us,” Olivier told Green Friday morning. “I am handing that over directly to the defense.”
Federal immigration law allows illegal aliens who allege to be victims of crime to be granted “U nonimmigrant status” and become lawful permanent residents, along with their qualifying family members such as parents and siblings, according to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services agency.
The defense contends that the victim’s family “using the criminal case and requesting the help of the State in obtaining a U-Visa is clearly exculpatory,” as asserted in the motion that Green heard Friday morning. “It provides a motive for the false accusation in this case and is necessary information for the defendant to have in order to effectively cross-examine witnesses in this case.”
A judge had issued a deportation order for the victim and his family, who were in the country illegally, The Alamance News was told at the time of McInnis’ arrest.
Alamance-Burlington school officials alleged at a hearing in January 2024 that McInnis had taken a student out of his class and sexually assaulted him, multiple area news outlets reported at the time.
Meanwhile, McInnis’ defense attorneys have filed motions to compel ABSS to provide all records concerning the accuser, who was nine years old at the time, as well as all records concerning the alleged victim’s younger brother, who was six when he made similar accusations later found to be unsubstantiated.
Cox and Dubs told Green Friday morning that not all of those materials appear to have been furnished by ABSS.
SBI couldn’t substantiate similar claim by victim’s younger brother
In an earlier motion, the defense attorneys contended that, on December 6, 2023, the six-year-old boy initially accused McInnis of “improper touching of the buttocks” sometime in October 2023. The State Bureau of Investigation investigated the initial allegation and found it to be unsubstantiated, according to the defense’s motion.
No charges were filed in connection with the younger brother’s initial accusation, the defense attorneys pointed out during Friday’s hearing.
Two days later, on December 8, 2023, the mother alleged that McInnis had sexually assaulted her nine-year-old son, according to the defense.
The defense has also subpoenaed the SBI in October 2025 to obtain any records, files, and investigative materials related to its investigation, including statements made by then-superintendent Dr. Dain Butler and his deputy, Lowell Rogers; Yolanda Anderson, chief human resources officer for ABSS; the assistant principal at Eastlawn, Tameka Cloud; and the retired former director of elementary education for ABSS, Dr. Jean Maness.
Cox and Dubs previously filed motions asking a judge to order ABSS to furnish and preserve all evidence stored on McInnis’ school-issued laptop and cell phone, as well as other electronic records that are believed to contain exculpatory evidence. ABSS previously informed the defense that those “materials may not be available after June 30, 2024,” when a statewide rollover to a new digital database was set to take effect, according to the court file.
“There is evidence of recantation from someone who doesn’t even know the defendant [and] who wasn’t even in the school at the time,” defense attorney Dubs said Friday morning. [It wasn’t clear whether she was referring to the younger or older brother.]
The defense served ABSS with a subpoena last month to obtain copies of all documents said to contain evidence that victim, now 12, later recanted his claim about the assault to teachers and other staff at Eastlawn Elementary School.
Another administrator at Eastlawn Elementary School said she’d given information about the recantation to the school system’s administration but wasn’t interviewed for the investigation, Cox said Friday morning. “My concern is why,” he said.
“We want to make sure we don’t find out, when she takes the witness stand, that [evidence of the alleged victim’s recantation] did exist,” Cox said. “Some of the folks that were interviewed are here today; we would like to subpoena them individually,” he said, referring to approximately two dozen supporters seated behind McInnis Friday morning, all dressed in matching light blue shirts.
One of McInnis’ supporters told The Alamance News later Friday morning that the group, “all friends and teachers from Eastlawn,” had taken the day off from work to attend the hearing and had worn matching light blue shirts as a show of support for him.
The school system’s administration claims that “nothing was written down when interviews were conducted about the alleged recantation,” Cox asserted. “We might be able to ascertain if we went through individuals specifically, rather than going through the ABSS attorney.”
ABSS attorney: ‘I’m surprised to hear this’
Adam Mitchell of the Tharrington Smith law firm in Raleigh appeared for ABSS in superior court on Friday morning and told Green that the school system’s administration had conducted a search of its files but found no records of a recantation.
“We’re not sure what was not provided,” Mitchell told Green. “We provided everything that was subpoenaed for, so I’m surprised to hear this, frankly.”
Green suggested that the defense could request the materials from specific individuals through the attorney, Mitchell, and “he can say to them, check your records,’ and he can respond accordingly.”
Cox responded, “We will send specific subpoenas as to the individuals.”
The defense has also filed a motion to obtain all records concerning the alleged victim from Crossroads Child Advocacy Center in Burlington or any mental healthcare provider.
Olivier countered that all of the records from Crossroads were handed over to the judge’s office. Grey
Mastro Hubbard, a clinical social worker and therapist based in Carrboro who interviewed the alleged victim for Crossroads, “does not keep records at Crossroads,” the assistant D.A. said. “I handed over the records for the victim.” Olivier added that a judge’s order, rather than a subpoena, is required to obtain the victim’s medical records.
Olivier said that Hubbard told her last Tuesday, April 14, that he would deliver the child’s medical records to her office, but she wasn’t sure if he had yet. “I need to reach back out to him,” she said, noting that she’d been in court all week. “I do have a lot of unread correspondence.”
McInnis will now be allowed to attend his children’s events at school
The judge granted the defense’s motion to compel production of all of the requested discovery materials and also agreed to modify the conditions of McInnis’ release.
McInnis will now be allowed to go onto the grounds of Smith Elementary School and Turrentine Middle School to attend his children’s school functions, providing he is accompanied by his wife.
He had been barred from going onto any ABSS property, except to drop off and pick up his children from school, since his arrest in December 2023.
Green also granted on Friday Oliver’s request to postpone McInnis’ trial from May 4 until October 26, 2026. The assistant D.A. pointed out that this was her first request for a continuance.
Olivier said she’d recently received a “voluminous amount of records” from ABSS through McInnis’ attorneys and needs additional time to investigate, in addition to waiting on the therapy records that the defense has requested.
“There is no way to go through [the] records by that time,” Olivier said, adding that she is also preparing for a first-degree murder trial for a defendant who has been in jail since 2020. “They’ve had to obtain a special judge for this matter,” she said.
McInnis objected, with his attorney Dubs telling Green, “The defendant wants this trial as soon as possible.”
Green’s decision to continue the trial until the end of October elicited audible gasps from McInnis’ supporters, prompting the judge to warn that he’d have them removed from the courtroom if there was another outburst.
McInnis, whose wife Jennifer was by his side throughout Friday’s hearing, stopped outside of the superior courtroom upstairs in the J.B. Allen, Jr. Criminal Court House afterwards to speak with his supporters. “Thank you – thank you for taking time out of your lives,” he said, as he removed his glasses and wiped away tears. “I miss you.”
He has no prior criminal history and no other pending charges in North Carolina, according to the state’s online court file management system.
McInnis remains suspended from his job without pay, ABSS officials confirmed late last week for The Alamance News. He has been employed as a principal since November 2012, based on information that the school system previously furnished to the newspaper in response to an unrelated public records request.
