The Maricopa County Attorney’s Office wants a further investigation of two former Centennial High School teachers who had an alleged sexual relationship with the same student.
This is the second time the county attorney sent the case involving Haley Beck and Angela Burlaka, the two former teachers at the center of the investigation, back to Peoria police. This first was in early April, and police resubmitted felony charges that same month. The county attorney returned the case again in August.
Neither the Peoria police or the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office provided further details on why the case was sent back or what additional investigation might be needed.
Peoria Unified Governing Board member Heather Rooks, who was removed from her position
as president of the board after publicly criticizing the district's handling of the case, said she does not believe the board is fully cooperating with the police investigation.
"The police are trying to put together this case against these two teachers, and you're wasting time,” she said, “and messing up all what they're trying to do by fighting it at the court.”
Rooks, who is running for reelection to the board this fall, has requested the district waive attorney-client privilege, which protects communication between a lawyer and a client, to avoid what she calls unnecessary costs and delays.
She said Peoria police requested executive session minutes as part of a search warrant served on district offices. Given the legally confidential nature of executive sessions, those minutes would have to be reviewed before police could receive them — unless the district waives the privilege.
She said governing board president Jeff Tobey refuses to put it on the board's agenda for consideration. Tobey did not respond to requests for comment.
In June, an attorney for the school district asked a judge to limit the scope of what documents the district must submit to police for investigation, citing documents protected by attorney-client privilege and student records protected under federal law.
Danielle Airey, a spokesperson for the district, said the district "respects the Court’s order that the proceedings are sealed by the Superior Court" and Peoria Unified continues to cooperate with the investigation.
Governing board member Melissa Ewing said that even if privileges were waived, there are still laws in place to keep records confidential.
"This argument that the only way to get the documents they need is to waive attorney-client privilege is wrong," she said. "The court has processes that it can undertake in order to get the documents it needs" without making documents public that are unrelated to the investigation to protect.
Former student files $7 million notice of claim
The legal issues for the district extend beyond the case going back to police.
On Sept. 22, a second student who previously attended Centennial High School filed a notice of claim against the district seeking $7 million in damages for sexual grooming and exploitation.
The claim, a precursor to a lawsuit, alleges Peoria Unified officials failed to investigate complaints against Beck and protect students “despite warning signs of alleged sexual misconduct” on campus.
The student in the document said he was a friend of the main victim involved in the investigation and claimed that Beck provided him with gifts that created a dependent relationship. He alleges that Beck gave him and a friend access to drugs and alcohol, including before and during driving them to an indoor kart racing facility, which he alleges endangered their safety.
The claim also alleges Beck lent her car to him and a friend to travel to California despite them not being “appropriately licensed.” Beck later met them in California where she provided them with drugs, alcohol and money to his friend to be used for the trip, according to the claim.
Former Centennial High School principal Scott Hollabough was allegedly made aware of some of Beck’s inappropriate actions, according to the document. It cited evidence of “flirtatious” and “immature” behavior that could be seen in online videos which any “reasonably attentive” administrator would see as student risk, the document said.
Beck's attorney, Matthew Long, declined to comment.
Hollabough received a written reprimand for failing to take appropriate action against Beck after concerns were raised beginning in early 2025. According to district records, Hollabough failed to interview the person who raised the concerns, witnesses, or the student involved. He also failed to address concerns of a student sitting in Beck’s vehicle.
“You addressed these incidents as separate concerns rather than recognizing them collectively as a potential pattern of boundary-related behavior,” the January 2026 reprimand from the district said.
Under Arizona law, school staff and coaches are considered mandatory reporters. This means employees are required to immediately report suspicions of abuse directly to law enforcement or the Department of Child Safety. Failure to do so could be considered a crime.
The reprimand said the concerns raised against Beck at the start of 2025 did not meet reasonable suspicion of abuse requiring mandated reporting.
Coverage of education solutions on azcentral.com and in The Arizona Republic is partially supported by a grant from the Arizona Local News Foundation’s Arizona Community Collaborative Fund.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Arizona teacher sex case sent back to police | Exclusive
