OAKLAND — Prosecutors have dismissed the kid intercourse abuse case towards a former instructor at Oakland Faculty of the Arts, ending a saga that spanned years and included a seven-figure lawsuit settlement towards the varsity.
Jeremy Taylor had been charged with committing a lewd act upon a toddler 14 years or youthful, together with enhancements alleging “substantial sexual contact,” in addition to choosing a susceptible sufferer and being able of belief. However in a March court docket listening to, prosecutors dismissed the case, citing lack of corroborating proof past the only alleged sufferer’s grievance.
The case was dismissed amid an ongoing dispute with the OSA, which had been ordered by a choose to clarify why it was lagging in compliance with a subpoena to supply data associated to Taylor and the alleged sufferer. On March 4, the day the order to indicate trigger was to be heard, the Alameda County District Legal professional’s Workplace dismissed the case.
Taylor’s lawyer, Liz Grossman, didn’t reply to a number of makes an attempt to achieve her by cellphone. She instructed KQED that Taylor “has always been steadfast in his innocence and is grateful that justice has finally been obtained against these false and ruinous allegations.”
The alleged sufferer, recognized solely as Jane Doe in court docket data, spoke on the March 4 listening to, referring to Taylor as a sexual abuser who “brainwashed” her and that she nonetheless struggles with trauma, self-abuse and belief points to at the present time.
“I desire the unhealthy bond we once had. I loved this man, smiled, and was genuinely okay with him raping me over and over and over again,” Doe mentioned in court docket. “I hate myself that I wanted to be with him in that way and make him happy, make him proud. I hate myself that I still care about him.”
Prosecutors allege that Taylor molested the sufferer on an ongoing foundation from September 2004 to September 2005, when Taylor was 29-30 years outdated. Police didn’t begin investigating him till final 12 months, when the alleged sufferer confided in a buddy what had occurred, and she or he known as the Oakland Police Division.
In her March 4 assertion, the lady mentioned that she resented her buddy for coming ahead to police and hadn’t needed the case to be prosecuted. She mentioned her buddy’s “betrayal and abandonment still breaks me to this day,” and that she’d been negatively affected by media protection of the case.
Taylor remained with the varsity for years after the alleged abuse and was fired in 2022, after a third-party investigation discovered he had “engaged in grooming behavior with multiple students and had a sexual relationship with one student,” KQED reported. The investigators used a decrease authorized customary than jurors are given for felony trials.
In a separate case, the lady sued OSA and obtained a seven-figure settlement, KQED reported.
Taylor had been warned by employees for having non-public conferences with college students through the time of the alleged abuse, in response to court docket data. Police mentioned in court docket filings that they talked to college students who mentioned he would provide their friends espresso or hugs, and one noticed the title of a scholar written in condensation inside Taylor’s car.
In Could 2004, a faculty administrator instructed Taylor to cease counseling college students in non-public conferences. Taylor responded with a memo stating he sought to offer college students a protected house to speak about household points, consuming issues, self-harm conduct and the like, in response to police.
The college, which teaches college students from sixth to twelfth grades, launched a public assertion saying it strives to “ensure a safe, supportive, and discrimination-free learning environment in which students can thrive.”
