Jose Bernardo Fanjul, accused of having sex
with a 16-year-old female student,
listens during his trial Tuesday.
Fanjul, 46, is charged with five counts of forcible sodomy,
a first-degree felony, and five counts of forcible sexual abuse,
a second-degree felony, for alleged sexual acts that prosecutors say
took place between March 1 and July 31 in 2008.
He has chosen to have a bench trial where 3rd District Judge Ann Boyden
will be the sole fact-finder, rather than a jury.
In a different case involving the same girl,
former West High counselor Marco Herrera, 53, pleaded guilty
last year to three counts of forcible sexual abuse, a second-degree felony,
as part of a plea bargain after he was charged with sexual activity with her in 2007.
Herrera is serving three consecutive prison terms of one-to-15 years behind bars.
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Technically, the crime he was accused of disappears.
Technically, he could go back to work at West High School.
Technically, next fall, he might be in a classroom full of boys and girls again.
"J.B. Fanjul reaches an eclectic bunch,"
said defense attorney Ken Brown.
"He befriends them, and, yes, he probably violates district policy.
But he does not commit a crime."
"This girl pulls out condoms like I pull out gum," said Brown.
Fanjul's family members and the crowd of female West High teachers
who served as his character witnesses and unofficial hand-holders burst into tears.
He claimed he had escaped a "high-tech lynching," thanked God
and then told his wife, in Spanish, not to say more.
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