I don’t know anything about this case but as a former prosecutor who attended national trainings on the prosecution of sexual assault crimes I have a few observations to share.

First, these cases have the lowest prosecution rate of any types of crimes, and of the very small percentage of cases that ever see the inside of a courtroom, they have the lowest conviction rate by far - far lower than all other types of crimes.

The system handles such cases poorly from the start in many cases, and sadly while they may not admit it, most jurors being inherent biases to the jury panel when it comes to sexual crimes, and having a much higher propensity to disbelieve victims including child victims.

I would not be in the least surprised to hear that the assaults were alleged to have occurred in front of a classroom full of students - for many such offenders the thrill of getting away with sexual assaults in front of an unwitting audience is part of the sick thrill of the crime. Noteworthy are the multiple cases I’ve seen and some which have been in the public eye of physicians who sexually molested child patients while their parents were in the exam room. Of course this can happen - a student behind the desk with a teacher can be groped in criminal ways without other students knowing what it is that is happening just a few feet away from them.

Yes sometimes the state overreaches and sometimes it goes on witch hunts - the daycare cases of the 80s are an excellent example of that phenomenon but they also led to all jurisdictions developing forensic interviewing of kids in order to avoid repeats of such practices. I don’t know what happened here, but I do know that the inconsistencies that are common in the testimonies of sexual assault victims especially of tender age are often misunderstood by jurors who lack life experience of the kind. It is critical in such cases to have an expert witness who can testify about how the trauma of sexual abuse, especially by a trusted mentor, can disrupt a victim’s perceptions and memory formation.

I hope the jury got it right here. I feel for the victims who were victimized either by the offender, by the system, or both.

Jury's try hard to get it right, so I trust they did their best.

Anonymous wrote:
It’s not acceptable but is it criminal?

Especially since in this case he adamantly denied that it ever happened and it seems the jury was convinced.

There has to be more to it. What he was accused of by so many kids would be really hard to ignore for any jury. By the numbers alone it sounded like a slam dunk case. For a jury to come to a unanimous decision that he was not guilty of a single sex crime and 10-2 on the three remaining misdemeanors means there’s something they heard that I bet we have not seen in the news. I’d be very interested to read trial transcripts

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How can touching be confused with something sexual? Is it really considered abuse now to touch a child in any way? Sort of the Me Too movement filtered down to kids.

In what world is a male teacher asking female students to sit on his lap acceptable?

It’s not acceptable but is it criminal?

Anonymous wrote:I don’t know if he’s guilty or not BUT I’m pissed that the police botched the investigation by not having separate interviewers, etc. I hope the police department is required to train and correctly investigate future cases so we don’t have an another outcome that is so uncertain.

This.

What I read in this thread reminds me of the OJ case (where the Police were so inept at investigating that the trial became a farce). Mind, OJ ultimately did lose in civil court on a wrongful death case.

Anonymous wrote:How can touching be confused with something sexual? Is it really considered abuse now to touch a child in any way? Sort of the Me Too movement filtered down to kids.

In what world is a male teacher asking female students to sit on his lap acceptable?

How can touching be confused with something sexual? Is it really considered abuse now to touch a child in any way? Sort of the Me Too movement filtered down to kids.

Anonymous wrote:I don’t know if he’s guilty or not BUT I’m pissed that the police botched the investigation by not having separate interviewers, etc. I hope the police department is required to train and correctly investigate future cases so we don’t have an another outcome that is so uncertain.

Wholeheartedly agree. If they had investigated properly it may have even protected all those kids from being exposed to the court system. It looks like a train that no one with any sense tried to pump the breaks on and just think things through before escalating.

I don’t know if he’s guilty or not BUT I’m pissed that the police botched the investigation by not having separate interviewers, etc. I hope the police department is required to train and correctly investigate future cases so we don’t have an another outcome that is so uncertain.

What was the outcome of the school board meeting this week?

And folks wonder why there is a shortage of teachers.

Anonymous wrote:What was the perceived reputation of this teacher prior to allegations?

I’ve indirectly noticed a lot of housing inventory in SP—is it because of this incident?

Teacher was well-liked from my understanding. Wife works as an assistant principal in a school too and stood by him the whole time.

Anonymous wrote:What was the perceived reputation of this teacher prior to allegations?

I’ve indirectly noticed a lot of housing inventory in SP—is it because of this incident?

Yes, everyone is leaving SP because a teacher who no longer works there was accused of a crime.

Sadly, most of the harm to children from both actual and alleged sexual contact with minors comes from how they are treated by people trying to help them and people making them feel shame to exploit their victimization.

What was the perceived reputation of this teacher prior to allegations?

I’ve indirectly noticed a lot of housing inventory in SP—is it because of this incident?