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District Backs Janitor Hire

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By VALERIE KALFRIN and SAMARA SODOS, The Tampa Tribune News Channel 8

Published: October 17, 2007

TAMPA - A man accused of beating his girlfriend into a coma had nothing in his background to prohibit him from working as a janitor at Blake High School, a school district spokesman said.

Stanley Telfare, 48, of 7711 Sumter Court, is being held without bail at Orient Road Jail. He is charged with felony battery and aggravated kidnapping in an attack on his girlfriend, Elalia Walker, 40, a secretary at the school, officials said.

Walker is in critical condition at Tampa General Hospital, police said.

Telfare was charged with felony kidnapping and felony aggravated battery in March 2005, less than a year before he came to work at Blake, public records show. Those charges were dropped after the victim signed a waiver declining prosecution.

A felony conviction would have barred Telfare from employment with the district, school district spokesman Steve Hegarty said Tuesday. After reviewing his record through a fingerprint check, the district opted to hire him.

A criminal record 'doesn't tell you what a person might do,' Hegarty said. 'We like to consider people are innocent until proven guilty. Also, we're not talking about a kindergarten teacher. We might have a different way of looking at that if it was for a different job.'

Meanwhile, the state attorney's office and Tampa police are reviewing Telfare's prior arrests. State attorney's office spokesman Mark Cox said the review is connected to a 1998 accidental shooting in which Telfare's then-girlfriend, Cynthia Howard, died.

The police department reopened Howard's fatal shooting last year.
Florida Department of Law Enforcement records show two previous felony arrests in Telfare's past, the 2005 kidnapping and aggravated-battery case and a burglary that same year in which charges were not filed.

Telfare has been employed at Blake since January 2006, Hegarty said. As a janitor, he came to work after school.

Walker works as a secretary for the night school, Hegarty said.

An arrest affidavit says Telfare argued with Walker and struck her on the head, 'rendering her unconscious.'

He then put her into a van, and Telfare told police Walker jumped from the vehicle, records state.

Reporter Valerie Kalfrin can be reached at (813) 259-7800 or vkalfrin@tampatrib.com. Reporter Samara Sodos can be reached at slsodos@wfla.com or (813) 314-5379.

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