A former Granite Hills Excessive Faculty instructor accused of sexual misconduct with an underage former feminine scholar was ordered Thursday to face trial on felony and misdemeanor fees.
Gerald Lopez, 55, who taught English and coached sports activities on the East County faculty, was arrested final 12 months by El Cajon police for alleged conduct involving the then 17-year-old sufferer.
Lopez is charged with felony counts of possessing baby pornography and sending dangerous matter to a minor, in addition to a misdemeanor depend of annoying or molesting a baby. He was held to reply on these fees following a two-day preliminary listening to in El Cajon Superior Court docket and faces as much as 4 years and eight months in state jail if convicted of all fees.
The alleged sufferer described through the preliminary listening to how she first noticed Lopez as a mentor, however their interactions progressed to flirtatious textual content messages and sharing footage.
Quite a few textual content message exchanges between the pair accounted for many of the proof introduced through the listening to. In line with testimony, police found greater than 8,000 textual content messages have been despatched between Lopez and the woman over the span of some months.
The woman additionally despatched images of herself to Lopez and offered him entry to a on-line photograph album that allegedly contained semi-nude images of herself, based on testimony.
Although she testified that she cared for him on the time, she stated now she feels “utterly the alternative.”
She testified that her mom found what was occurring and reported it to the varsity. Lopez was initially positioned on unpaid depart, however faculty district officers introduced in August that he was not working for the district.
Lopez additionally allegedly despatched the sufferer footage of himself that Deputy District Lawyer Joshua Brisbane argued in court docket have been “sexually motivated.”
“Beneath the guise of caring for her, he manipulated (the sufferer),” the prosecutor stated.
Lopez stays out of custody on $70,000 bail.
–-Metropolis Information Service
