The three Mercer County School District employees arrested on Wednesday have been released from custody.
Superintendent Tim Farquer and IT workers Amberly Norton and Andrea Long appeared in Mercer County Circuit Court via Zoom from the Mercer County Jail on Thursday. Norton and Long had their preliminary hearings scheduled for Oct. 7, while Farquer’s preliminary hearing will be Oct. 20.
All three were arrested on Wednesday following an investigation by the Aledo Police Department into a complaint accusing Mercer County School District employees of illegally accessing students’ medical records. Farquer, Norton and Long are each charged with a Class A misdemeanor of unauthorized access to medical records, a Class A misdemeanor of computer tampering and a Class 3 felony of official misconduct.
According to court records, Farquer is alleged to have compiled a database of vaccine information about students and shared it with unauthorized people on Sept. 1.
During their initial appearance, Norton and Long were accused of committing the alleged offenses beginning on July 19, 2019.
During their pretrial release, Farquer, Norton and Long were ordered to have no contact with each other.