When Alonso Manuel Gonzalez says so.
You'll remember Gonzalez as the former special-education assistant at Saddleback High in SanTana who pleaded guilty to abusing a 17-year-old girl suffering from cerebral palsy and with the mental capacity of a seven-year-old, abuse his former employers at the Santa Ana Unified School District first tried to cover up and is now claiming in civil court was consensual. Gonzalez admitted his perversion long ago, but a police report recently obtained by the Weekly on the original incident reveals that Gonzalez's laughable, despicable excuses started immediately after the abuse occurred.
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The report, filed by a Santa Ana police officer, featured an interview with the teacher's assistant at Saddleback who first reported Gonzalez's crime when it happened on November 17, 2008. The assistant (whom we'll refer to as M) told the investigator he and Gonzalez were supervising some students in a classroom. M wanted to take a break but couldn't because it was against SAUSD policy to leave special-ed students alone with just one supervising adult. Gonzalez nevertheless allowed M to leave for 15 minutes and “did not express any concern about being left alone” with the victim and another disabled student, according to M's testimony in the police report.
When M returned to retrieve a backpack and opened the classroom door, the report noted, “he saw [the victim] sitting in her wheelchair, with both her breasts completely exposed. He saw Gonzalez holding up the bottom portion of [the victim'] school uniform shirt and undershirt up to her chin.”
“What the hell are you doing?” M yelled at Gonzalez. M told the investigator that Gonzalez “appeared shocked and nervous” when he entered the room, and that Gonzalez replied, “I'm just fixing [the victim's] shirt.” M stormed out of the classroom, gathered his thoughts, and called the police.
“I reported the incident because it didn't feel right,” M told the investigator. “That was wrong. I'm afraid that he could continue to sexually assault her. I left the classroom because I was shocked and confused abut what I saw.”
Gonzalez denied everything. Expose the student's breasts? No, he merely “pulled down the collar of her undershirt a couple of inches” because saliva had drenched the student's chin, neck and shirt. Expose the student's breasts? No, he merely “pulled up the collar of her undershirt, and was fastening the top button of her short-sleeved shirt” when M walked in on him. Gonzalez said he had no idea why M claimed that the victim's breasts were exposed and that M “has no reason to lie.”
The investigating officer was skeptical of Gonzalez's version. He noted that the top of the victim's shirt “did not appear to be stretched out or torn.” And while the officer did see that the student's shirt was damp from saliva, he “didn't observe any saliva run down her neck or chin” in the course of his observation of the victim. He eventually arrested Gonzalez for suspected sexual assault, a felony.
Gonzales would go on to admit to child abuse and endangerment, a misdemeanor. Yet he and the district continue to employ the Larry Craig defense, trying to recant their admitted roles. SICK SICK SICK!
