Former Sublette Teachers Battery Trial Concludes

The trial for a former Sublette teacher and coach has concluded, a Haskell County District Court staffer confirmed Friday. The results were unavailable, however. Matthew Ziegler, 30, stood this week before District Judge Clint Peterson in Haskell County on charges of felony aggravated battery and misdemeanor child endangerment. Ziegler, who resigned in April 2011 from his job as a junior high language arts teacher and Sublette High School basketball coach, initially was charged in April 2011 with four counts of felony unlawful sexual relations with a student and pleaded innocent to those charges. The complaint against him was amended Monday by Paul Kitzke, Stevens County attorney serving as a special prosecutor for the case. Kitzke did not return calls from The News. Judge Peterson, with an office in Liberal, could not be reached for comment, and Haskell County District Court staff declined to release the results without a journal entry. Paul Olson of Liberal, who is listed in court records as Ziegler’s defense attorney, also could not be reached for comment. Ziegler was suspended by Sublette USD 374 on March 22, 2011, after the Haskell County Sheriff’s Office and the Kansas Bureau of Investigation began an investigation.