NEWPORT — The wife of a former Newport School Board member charged with having sex with an underage teen has now been indicted herself on a charge of witness tampering in an investigation that links two high-profile criminal cases and reveals why the owner of a vehicle spray painted with graffiti was targeted in a Sullivan County vandalism spree last fall.

Andrea Beard, wife of former School Board member and local podcaster Tim Beard, 40, who faces a charge of sexual exploitation of a 17-year-old girl six years ago, was indicted this week by a Sullivan County Grand jury and charged with witness tampering.

The indictment comes after she allegedly attempted to induce a family member of the man who spray painted the word “pedo” on the Beards’ vehicle not to cooperate with police in their investigation of her husband’s alleged sexual texting with minors, according to court documents.

“I don’t want to press charges, but if this keeps going on with Tim, I’m going to have to,” Andrea Beard allegedly said to a family member of one of the four men charged with defacing the Beards’ vehicle in their driveway during a vandalism spree in Newport and neighboring communities in late October, according to a probable cause statement supporting the charge in Claremont District Court.

Andrea Beard entered a not guilty plea to the charge and “strongly denies having committed any crime,” Gary Apfel, Beard’s attorney, said in an email to the Valley News.

“At no time did Ms. Beard attempt to induce (the family member of one of the men accused in the vandalism spree) to withhold any evidence regarding any pending proceeding or investigation,” Apfel said, emphasizing that his client “is not aware to this day of any pending proceeding or investigation” involving the witness or her family member.

Andrea Beard, 40, is scheduled to be arraigned on April 17 in Sullivan County Superior Court, where the case has been moved from District Court.

The court documents relate intermingling connections among the various parties — victims, defendants and witnesses — between the two criminal cases, either as friends, acquaintances, coworkers or family members . They show that police were already investigating Tim Beard of suspicion in unlawful sexual communication with minors in New Hampshire at the time he was arrested and charged with sexual exploitation of a minor in Vermont.

He pleaded not guilty to the charge in Vermont on Jan. 30 in Windsor County Superior Court and stepped down that same day from the Newport School Board, on which he had served since 2022.

Cabot Teachout, an attorney for Tim Beard in the Vermont case, declined to comment on allegations relating to his client in either case.

According to police, Andrea Beard showed up at the witness’ workplace on Jan. 29, three days after her husband Tim Beard had been charged in Vermont, and approached the teenager.

Signaling that she wanted to talk privately, Beard allegedly pressed the witness to not cooperate with police in an investigation involving her husband’s alleged “unlawful sexual electronic communications” with two juvenile females — including the witness — who informed police that Tim Beard had “attempted to solicit her for a nude photograph” and “attempted to meet up for the purposes of sexual contact,” the probable cause statement said.

The age of the witness is not known, but as of September 2023, she was described as a juvenile, which is generally defined as a person under the age of 18.

During the encounter at the witness’ workplace — a retail outlet in Claremont — Andrea Beard accused her of providing investigators with the identity of the alleged victim in the Vermont case, which the witness denied to Beard.

At the same time, the witness acknowledged that “she provided the police with other evidence” of alleged misconduct by Beard, according to the probable cause statement.

Andrea Beard explained to the witness that she and her husband were “going through a rough time” and said to her that she “shouldn’t have even brought it to the police,” the document recounts.

“Well, your husband shouldn’t be texting minors,” the witness shot back.

At that point Andrea Beard allegedly brought up the vandalism case involving the witness’ family member and warned that if the witness didn’t stop cooperating or recant her statement to police then Beard would go ahead “press charges” against the family member for the vandalism.

(In fact, Newport police had announced about six weeks earlier in mid-December that they had arrested four men in the October vandalism spree.)

In late January, after her husband had been arrested and charged in Windsor County, Andrea Beard took to Facebook, where she posted a lengthy defense — since deleted — of her husband and recounted her own traumatic story of domestic abuse at the hands of a former spouse.

“When I finally got strong enough to leave my husband, Tim was my protector. He saved my children and I and he’s not the monster (others) are saying,” Andrea Beard wrote.

She alleged that her husband’s charge in Vermont was the result of one of the four suspects in the October vandalism case trying to get out of the charges.

“If you’re wondering why (the allegation of sexual exploitation of a minor) came back up 6 years later, well our vehicles were vandalized back in the fall, (a racial slur) and pedo was on the vehicle. The cops were able to use ping signals on phones to find the suspects. Well, one of the people arrested knew about this supposed story, and to try and get themselves out of it, they brought this to light,” Andrea Beard wrote.

That timeline, although not necessarily the purported cause-and-effect alleged by Andrea Beard, roughly comports with the account of the investigation, according to the probable cause statement in the case against her.

In that document, police said they began investigating Tim Beard in September 2023 due to suspicion of “alleged unlawful sexual electronic communications” between himself and “two juvenile females.”

Concurrently with that investigation, which continued into the fall, the family member of the witness allegedly became involved in the vandalism of the Beards’ vehicle.

“Upon completion of the sex crimes investigation, it was determined that the conduct (against the two juvenile females) did not meet the criteria for prosecution thus far and the case was suspended pending further leads of information,” the court document says.

“However, during the investigation, Newport police investigators recovered evidence of an additional crime against a separate victim,” which led them to open a joint investigation with Vermont police that led to the sexual exploitation charge against Tim Beard in January.

Apfel, Andrea Beard’s attorney, said his client wanted to subpoena the witness — whom the Valley News is not identifying because she is a victim of Tim Beard’s alleged advances — to require her testimony at a probable cause hearing in Claremont District Court, but prosecutors “thwarted” that attempt by “seeking an expedited indictment” to block the hearing from taking place.

“Ms. Beard was emotionally devastated by the prosecutor’s efforts to deny (her) the right to present favorable evidence at a preliminary hearing,” Apfel said in his email.

Reached late Friday afternoon, Sullivan County Attorney Marc Hathaway responded that prosecutors “regularly” opt for a “direct indictment” to charge an individual and it does not deny a defendant the right to due process.

“The purpose of a probable cause hearing is to bring the matter before the Superior Court to make a determination of probable cause. We had a grand jury that serves the same function without the need to pre-litigate this case,” he said. “It has nothing to do with this particular case. It’s very common.”

“We went to the grand jury and we are now in Superior Court. Ms. Beard and her attorney can make any challenges they wish in that forum,” Hathaway said.

Contact John Lippman at jlippman@vnews.com.