| For Immediate Release Case # 11WF0941 August 30, 2012 |
Susan Kang Schroeder Chief of Staff Office: 714-347-8408 Cell: 714-292-2718 Farrah Emami
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MARRIED TEACHERS CONVICTED OF UNLAWFUL SEX, SODOMY, AND ORAL COPULATION WITH 17-YEAR-OLD MALE STUDENT
WESTMINSTER – Two married school teachers were convicted today of having an unlawful sexual relationship together and on their own with a 17-year-old male high school student. Daniel Alma Shepard, 63, Huntington Beach, pleaded guilty to a court offer to two felony counts of oral copulation of a minor, one felony count of sodomy with a person under 18 years old, and one misdemeanor count of contributing to the delinquency of a minor. Gay Davidson-Shepard, 60, Huntington Beach. Pleaded guilty to a court offer to three felony counts each of unlawful sexual intercourse, sodomy with a person under 18 years old, oral copulation of a minor, and one misdemeanor count each of contributing to the delinquency of a minor and violation of a protective order.
The defendants are scheduled to be sentenced Sept. 27, 2012, in Department W-1, West Justice Center, Westminster. Shepard and Davidson-Shepard are expected to be sentenced to the court offer of three years formal probation, counseling, and 60 days of community service. Shepard was sentenced to two years in prison and Davidson-Shepard was sentenced to four years in prison, both stayed pending completion of probation. The People intend to object to the sentence at the sentencing hearing.
At the time of the crime, Gay Davidson-Shepard was a teacher at Mesa View Middle School in Huntington Beach and her husband Daniel Shepard was a teacher at Westminster High School in Westminster.
Daniel Shepard met John Doe while the victim was a student at Westminster High School. In March 2009, Daniel Shepard and Gay Davidson-Shepard groomed the 17-year-old victim by regularly inviting him to their Huntington Beach home to drink alcohol, eat, play board games, and watch movies.
In April 2009, the defendants sexually assaulted the victim for the first time. While John Doe was at their home, the defendants got into the Jacuzzi naked and encouraged the victim to do the same. After getting out of the hot tub, Gay Davidson-Shepard orally copulated both the victim and Daniel Shepard.
On a weekly basis beginning in April 2009, the defendants got John Doe intoxicated by providing him with alcohol and then engaged in illegal sex acts with the victim in their home including mutual masturbation, oral copulation, sexual intercourse, and sodomy. Daniel Shepard sexually assaulted John Doe until September 2009 and Gay Davidson-Shepard sexually assaulted John Doe until December 2009. The victim turned 18 years old in December 2009 and any sexual conduct with the defendant could not be criminally charged after that time.