Two Mercer County School District IT workers will appear in court next week, following the acquittal of Mercer County School District Superintendent Tim Farquer on Friday.
Amberly Norton and Andrea Long are scheduled to return to Mercer County Circuit Court on Aug. 10. They were both arrested along with Farquer last September, following an Aledo Police Department investigation into a complaint from a school nurse that accused Mercer County School District employees of illegally accessing students’ medical records.
Norton and Long are each facing a Class 3 felony of official misconduct and Class A misdemeanors of computer tampering and unauthorized access to medical records. They have both pleaded not guilty to all charges.
Farquer was facing four Class 3 felony counts of official misconduct and two Class A misdemeanors of computer tampering and unauthorized access to medical records. He was ruled not guilty on Friday during a bench trial when a judge granted his defense’s request for a judgment of acquittal, which says that even if the prosecution’s evidence is viewed in the most favorable light to the State, no reasonable jury or judge could find the defendant guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. Essentially, the ruling said the charges against Farquer were so weak that he was acquitted before his defense had to present a case or call its own witnesses.
The charges against Norton and Long allege they began illegally accessing records in July 2019, while Farquer’s charges surrounded a Google Drive spreadsheet and information regarding measles vaccination records in May 2025 and confirmed cases of hand, foot, and mouth disease in the district in September 2025.
WRMJ has requested comment from the Mercer County State’s Attorney’s Office and the Mercer County School District following Farquer’s acquittal, but has not heard back.
After WRMJ reached out for a response from the Aledo Police Department on Friday, a public relations firm in North Carolina released a statement on the department’s behalf.