New Evidence Vindicates Former Racine Substitute Teacher

By Edwyn Holmes-Graysen, JBCHP© Contributor

It’s been several years now since Justin Beaton’s 2016 court case his only ever—and it seemed as though the dust had settled, as everyone has long moved on. But things are not always as they seem.

Justin Beaton was a young, single guy taking periodic high school substitute teacher jobs in his hometown of Racine, WI at Racine Case and Racine Horlick high schools for the Racine Unified School District.

Beaton’s Case Was Not Accurately Portrayed to the Public

The sensationalized public narrative at the time carelessly portrayed Beaton very negatively by uncritically relaying the inaccurate government narrative to the public, and the public was never made aware of the actual story. But recent developments have unearthed the old case that has turned it completely on its head. A private investigator was hired to verify the facts of the case, and the results were astounding. Not only was Beaton not the “mastermind” or sole initiator as the public narrative falsely portrayed, but corroborating statements from the young women themselves showed that the police report contained significant discrepancies. This is highly noteworthy because the entire case and its narrative, as well as Beaton’s conviction, rested totally on that report.

Trustworthiness of Public Narratives

Amongst the litany of new evidence that has emerged, evidence exists that the young women involved attempted to vouch for Beaton’s character and did not

Justin Beaton

want to cooperate with the authorities, but were forced to be interviewed—even being misled to believe that they would get in trouble if they didn’t cooperate—and many of their actual statements were never recorded. Instead, the entire narrative was turned from simply being Beaton utilizing poor judgment to Beaton being a predator, and the false narrative was uncritically relayed to the public as though it were fact. Perhaps the most crucial revelation is that had the truthful statements been recorded, there would have likely been no case.

The Statements in the Reports Are in Serious Doubt

Much of the evidence is astounding as it displays that the narrative conveyed to the public was almost completely untrue. Beaton never sexually assaulted anyone, he never sent criminally “harmful material” to “children” nor “harmed” anyone, and he never acted in a nonmutual predatory manner with anyone—not with the young women in the case or anyone else at the school.

The most convincing are the statements from the actual young women in the ensuing years. They recounted how he was a great guy, didn’t do anything criminal to them, and how the police report manipulated their words to make it look as though Beaton forced them and was behaving predatorily—both completely untrue narratives. One of the young women even remarked on how “the reports do make it seem like a very different story” and that she was glad that Beaton was able to get a lot of the reports taken down. She also commented on how the police had “chosen” Beaton’s fate and that he “had no choice in the matter” because they had the power, not him.

It just goes to show you that things aren’t always as they seem, especially when it comes to a criminal justice system that has an underlying agenda based around the pursuit of convictions at all costs, and some (not all) media outlets that have an agenda around getting the most clicks and views possible as opposed to being concerned about what actually did and didn’t happen.

A Travesty of the Justice System and Journalism

Justin Beaton, circa 2016

What was most unfortunate about the media coverage is not only did it uncritically relay the inaccurate version of events to the public as though they were fact, but a multitude of exonerating details were omitted. Several other young women who knew Beaton vouched for his character in the actual police report, several friends, families, and co-workers wrote letters in support of his character, and his attorney at the time commented on how the charges were “ridiculous” because of the girl’s ages and level of sophistication. He also noted how there were “issues with the facts in the case”.

Beaton himself was silent in court when the judge asked him if the facts in the case were correct, and Beaton himself (nor the young women) were ever interviewed and asked about what happened and didn’t happen—but none of any of this was included anywhere in any of the reporting. Instead, the news was covered entirely from the government’s perspective, including outlandish comments by the court officials, with an intent to make Beaton look as negative as possible. This was a travesty of the justice system and journalism.

Several News Outlets Have Removed Their Content About Beaton’s 2016 Case

On a brighter note, however, Beaton has been on the receiving end of some encouragement for himself and his family. Beaton has reached out to each media outlet that covered the case, and showed them evidence of the facts, and several, including large media outlets such as TMJ4, FOX6, and Yahoo! News have actually removed their content. This is further corroboration, as it is highly improbable that a news station will retract stories unless there is a valid reason. In fact, TMJ4 recently debuted a brand-new initiative called “Moving Forward” that gives people who were the subject of outdated or inaccurate news coverage the opportunity to have them removed. On their site, they state,

“We understand that lives change, and people change, and online search results can have a lasting impact on someone’s ability to move forward.”

Other cases like Beaton’s inspired this highly successful and helpful project.

Justin Beaton

All the evidence, as well as information about Justin Beaton and the case, can be accessed here.