BY PAMELA GOULD

Andrew Mikel, who fought his son’s long-term suspension for shooting plastic spitballs at Spotsylvania High School classmates, has been charged with three felonies involving sexual abuse of a teenage girl.

Andrew James Mikel, 40, faces a preliminary hearing Feb. 10 on charges of forcible sodomy, aggravated sexual battery and taking indecent liberties with the teen, according to Spotsylvania Sheriff’s Capt. Mike Harvey.

Mikel, who lives on Hancock Road in Spotsylvania, was arrested Dec. 13 and initially held without bond. Two days later, he was released on a secured $25,000 bond on the conditions that he have no contact with the alleged victim and no unsupervised contact with any children, Spotsylvania court records show.

Mikel is employed as superintendent of the Rappahannock Regional Landfill in Stafford County. On Monday, he was placed on administrative leave with pay pending the results of further investigation, Stafford County spokeswoman Cathy Vollbrecht said.

Mikel’s charges stem from actions alleged to have occurred between Oct. 1, 2010, and June 30, 2011, the arrest warrants issued on Dec. 8 state.

That’s about the same timeframe when Mikel was fighting his son’s suspension from school.

Andrew Mikel II, then 14, was suspended from Spotsylvania High School in December 2010 after striking classmates with plastic balls he shot at them through a plastic tube during the lunch period.

His suspension stretched through the remainder of the 2010–11 school year.

Mikel fought his son’s suspension, first by appealing to a School Board panel and then by taking the case to the Spotsylvania Circuit Court with the aid of Constitutional rights attorneys with The Rutherford Institute of Charlottesville.

When those efforts failed in May 2011, Mikel appealed his son’s case to the Virginia Supreme Court. When the justices ruled in favor of the school division in October, he asked for a rehearing, which was denied earlier this month.

Andrew Mikel II returned to school for the 2011–12 school year.

Pamela Gould: 540/735-1972
pgould@freelancestar.com