A former Benicia Unified instructor was sentenced Monday in Solano County Superior Courtroom in Vallejo to probation for misdemeanor annoying or molesting a sufferer beneath 18 years of age.
Kurt Michael Sindel II, 58, appeared earlier than Decide Bryan J. Kim, who additionally issued a protecting order for him to steer clear of and haven’t any contact with the sufferer. The decide additionally ordered Sindel to register as a “Tier 1” sexual offender, in response to official courtroom data.
The sentencing got here after Sindel, a former Unbiased Research coordinator with the college district, entered on Oct. 29, 2024, a no-contest plea to the misdemeanor cost in Division 15 within the Justice Constructing. The Solano County District Lawyer’s Workplace filed its grievance on Sept. 29, 2023.
Deputy District Lawyer Michael Silva prosecuted the case. Berkeley-based legal professional Elizabeth Grossman represented Sindel.
Courtroom data present that Grossman earlier this month submitted a letter to Kim for leniency and understanding of her consumer’s circumstances, citing Sindel’s medical and private histories.
She famous that he suffered a mind harm in 2018, accepted accountability for his actions, and submitted a letter of resignation addressed to district officers. She asserted that he had coooperated with courtroom orders by adhering to a pretrial companies contract’s phrases and situations.
Additionally within the letter, Grossman stated Sindel was “in anguish” over his conduct “with deep self condemnation.” He was so distraught that he made an try to kill himself on Oct. 15, 2022, she added.
Sindel labored as a instructor for 26 years and his California instructing credential has been revoked, she stated.
Moreover, Grossman stated her consumer “lives with his elderly parents and his daily focus is as a caretaker for their needs.”
Sindel’s mind harm, she stated, left him with “forever altered” psychological talents.
Neither the Solano County Probation Division nor the sufferer’s household demaned jail or jail time for Sindel, famous Grossman.
“Imposing electronic monitoring in place of custody time imposed will service justice in this matter,” she wrote.
Sindel’s sentencing was the second case in recent times involving alleged intercourse offenses in opposition to minors by a BUSD teacher.
Matthew Joseph Shelton, 43, charged with 12 felony counts of lewd acts on 4 youngsters beneath 14, confronted a held-to-answer arraignment on Monday following a preliminary listening to in December and early January within the Justice Constructing.
Together with his protection legal professional, Amanda Bevins, at his facet, Shelton, a former instructor at Robert Semple Elementary, once more on Monday denied all of the allegations.
Throughout the transient continuing, Deputy District Lawyer Barry Shapiro advised Decide Kim that he had “received information” that Shelton might have violated a courtroom order by attending an unspecific “school function” throughout the district.
The decide set a 9 a.m. Feb. 11 listening to to handle the matter, a part of Shelton’s pretrial companies contract, and in addition set a readiness convention and a “995 motion,” a protection request to dismiss a cost or prices, for 9 a.m. March 17 in Division 15.
Initially Printed: January 16, 2025 at 8:36 AM PST
