UPDATE, JULY 26, 1:15 P.M.: Remember that creepy . . . excuse me, allegedly creepy . . . Huntington Beach teaching couple accused of sexually tag-teaming a 17-year-old student?
Well, Gay Davidson-Shepard, 59, joined her 62-year-old husband Daniel Alma Shepard in retirement, according to a published report.
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Charges against the couple had Davidson-Shepard, a former Huntington
Beach teacher union president, on administrative leave since April. Her
retirement became effective the following month, reports the Huntington Beach Independent.
She leaves the Ocean View School District, where her final assignment was at Mesa View Middle School.
UPDATE, APRIL 25, 4:47 P.M.: Quoting an unnamed “spokesman for prosecutors,” a Los Angeles-based television station reports today that more possible victims of Daniel Alma Shepard and Gay Davidson-Shepard have come forward.
Click here for the KABC/Channel 7 Eyewitness News report.
UPDATE, APRIL 21, 5:07 P.M.: According to the Orange County District Attorney's office (OCDA), Daniel Alma Shepard and Gay Davidson-Shepard each made their $150,000 bail and are out of custody. They were to be arraigned Friday, but that has been rescheduled to 9 a.m. May 19 in Westminster, the OCDA adds.
As we'd previously reported, the Hungtington Beach Union High School District's online Westminster High School page still lists Dan Shepard as part of the science faculty. But a Los Angeles television station reports he is retired.
UPDATE, APRIL 21, 10:30 A.M.: And here's the lovely couple:
Now picture them nude sliding up to you in a hot tub. Allegedly. Apologies for ruining any breakfasts.
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ORIGINAL POST, APRIL 20, 5:13 P.M.: A former president of the Huntington Beach teacher union and her Westminster High School science teacher husband were charged today with having sexual relationships together and separately with a 17-year-old male high school student.
Officers from the Westminster Police Department, which is investigating the case, had arrested Gay Davidson-Shepard, 59, and Daniel Alma Shepard, 62, at their Huntington Beach home earlier today.
The charges against the husband could have him conducting science experiments in a state prison cell for five years, while the Mrs. faces up to eight years and four months in the can.
Davidson-Shepard was a teacher at Mesa View Middle School in Huntington Beach at the time of the alleged trysts. The Huntington Beach Union High School District's Westminster High School page still lists Shepard as part of the science faculty. Both Shepards have appeared in local media reports over the past several years concerning teacher union business, classroom science techniques and other education issues.
Dan Shepard is accused of meeting the boy while he was a student at Westminster High. The couple is alleged to have groomed the boy in March 2009 by regularly inviting him to their Huntington Beach home to drink alcohol, eat, play board games, and watch movies.
The following month, the couple is accused of getting into their home's hot tub naked and encouraging the 17-year-old to do the same. Davidson-Shepard is accused of then blowing her husband and the boy.
On a weekly basis from that point forward, according to an Orange County District Attorney's office (OCDA) statement, the couple got the youth drunk and engaged in illegal sex acts with him, including mutual masturbation, oral copulation, sexual intercourse, and sodomy.
For Shepard, this allegedly happened through September 2009. He is also accused of asking the boy to send nude photos of himself and to pose for shots naked or engaged in sex acts.
For Davidson-Shepard, the sexual assaults lasted through December 2009, the OCDA claims. The victim turned 18 that month so, as an adult, criminal conduct cannot be alleged for any sex thereafter.
The young man reported the kinky relationship to his mother this past March. She contacted the Westminster Police Department, which launched the investigation that resulted in today's charges
Dan Shepard is charged with two felony counts of oral copulation of a minor, one felony count of sodomy with a person under 18 years old, one felony count of possession and control of child pornography, and one misdemeanor count of contributing to the delinquency of a minor.
Davidson-Shepard is charged with 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 of contributing to the delinquency of a minor.
The couple was held in lieu of $150,000 bail each before their arraignment scheduled for Friday morning in Westminster.
Meanwhile, police and the OCDA are looking for other possible victims. Contact Westminster police Det. Michael Nguyen at 714.548.3247 or Supervising District Attorney Investigator Lou Gutierrez at 714.347.8794 if you know anything.
OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.