Raleigh, N.C. — The former headmaster of a Zebulon charter school is suing the school and two female school employees for defamation, civil conspiracy and emotional distress after the women claimed that he inappropriately touched them.

Brandon Smith filed the complaint Friday in Wake County Superior Court, more than three weeks after he was dismissed from East Wake Academy, where he was headmaster for a decade.

Smith has not been charged with any crime, but Zebulon police have said the women filed sexual battery complaints against him.

“It is regrettable that, after 10 years of dedicated service to the students and families of the East Wake Academy community, Brandon Smith has been forced to engage in civil litigation in order to clear his name,” Smith’s attorney James Hairston said Friday. “He continues to hope for the best for all of the students of East Wake Academy.

Smith claims that two members of East Wake Academy’s Board of Directors – Aubrey Edwards and Robin Hicks – and the two teachers concocted accusations that he inappropriately touched and talked to them.