SAN DIEGO _ The former headmaster of a Carlsbad military boarding school was found guilty Monday on six counts of molesting a former cadet at the school nearly 20 years ago, but acquitted on five other molestation charges.
Jeffrey Barton, 59, has denied the long-term abuse the alleged victim said started when he was 14 and a cadet at the seaside Army and Navy Academy in Carlsbad where Barton lived and taught. Barton has been in custody since his 2013 arrest.
Deputy District Attorney Patricia Lavermicocca said outside the courtroom Monday that justice was done.
The verdicts were read on the first day of deliberations since Vista Superior Court Judge Harry Elias replaced a juror who was accused by the rest of the panel of failing to deliberate. Elias interviewed each of the jurors individually Thursday and then made his ruling Friday to sideline Juror No. 12 and replace her with an alternate.
Eighteen months ago, a jury in another trial deadlocked over charges that Barton had abused the accuser between late 1999 and 2001. Prosecutors retried Barton on 11 felony charges accusing him of repeatedly molesting the victim both on campus and during out-of-town trips.
The case hinged on the credibility of the accuser, who did not disclose the alleged abuse until 2013. The prosecution pointed to corroborating evidence, including contemporaneous suspicions from adults at the school, and other accusers dating back decades. The defense tore into the accuser's story, called him a liar, and noted that he has since sued the school. (That civil trial is set for August.)
During the investigation, six more accusers came forward, their allegations covering three boarding schools in three states, and dating to the mid-1980s. Among them was a man who said he had never spoken of the abuse until he read of Barton's arrest online. The man, now in his 40s, testified that he threw up, then drove home from work to tell his wife for the first time what had happened to him at a South Carolina boarding school decades earlier.
Barton was eventually charged with molesting four former cadets during their time at the Army and Navy Academy between 1995 and 2001. He was not charged with allegations related to the accusers from out-of-state schools, but their accusations were presented to judges and jurors to establish a pattern and proclivity.
Before the first trial, a judge dismissed charges involving one of the Army and Navy accusers. A few months later, the jury at Barton's first trial acquitted him of molesting two other Army and Navy accusers during an overnight ski trip. That same jury deadlocked as to the charges involving the accuser known as John Doe.
At retrial, Barton faced charges involving only John Doe. The jury also heard from two other accusers _ the men who said they were abused decades ago at boarding schools in the South.
During closing arguments Thursday, Lavermicocca told the jury that Barton followed a formula in which he groomed the boy, plied him with gifts and trips and then "did the unspeakable for his own perverted sexual desires."
The now 32-year-old accuser, identified in court as John Doe, testified that Barton began molesting him not long after his mother shipped him off to attend the military boarding school in 1999, with promises he could come home if he did not misbehave during the school year.
Lavermicocca said Barton was in a position of power as a teacher, administrator and friend of the then-school president, and the boy was vulnerable _ small, scrawny and bullied by the other cadets.
When the molestation started, the boy was left confused and helpless, sure he would not be believed over Barton, who also had gained the trust of his mother, the prosecutor said. The accuser testified that Barton threatened to tell his mother he was acting out if he did not comply.
Suspicion was so strong by others on campus that Carlsbad police were called to investigate in 2000. At that time, the boy denied the abuse.
Defense attorney Sherry Stone pointed to that denial and other inconsistent statements from the accuser since he came forward four years ago. Stone also noted that the accuser had initially denied that he'd continued his communication with Barton long after he left the school in early 2001. Cellphone records show more than 60 calls between them in 2004 and 2005.
"This case is based on John Doe and his statements _ his prior inconsistent statements and his lies," she said. "John Doe cannot be believed."
Barton resigned from the school in June 2013. He was formally charged in October 2013, and was ordered to face trial after a grand jury indictment in summer 2014.
