By Linda Taaffe
Three unrelated sexual-abuse cases involving educators with Los Altos ties entered courtrooms this month. A local elementary teacher is in jail on child pornography charges after allegedly trying to develop a sexual relationship over the course of a year with a Los Altos police officer who posed as a 12-year-old girl on the Internet; A Homestead High School choir teacher was arrested a second time March 2 on additional sexual intercourse charges; and the first priest sex-abuse case filed against the Archdiocese of San Francisco started March 7. That case involves charges against the late Rev. Joseph Pritchard, who spent his final years as pastor at St. Nicholas Catholic Church in Los Altos.
The elementary teacher
and the Internet
David Joseph Welsh, 57, evaded police for nearly a week before surrendering at the Santa Clara County Main Jail last week.
Los Altos police obtained an arrest warrant for the 57-year-old March 3 after investigators discovered child pornography and evidence of chat room contacts with underage girls on his computer during a search of his San Jose apartment. He faces a misdemeanor violation of possession of child pornography, which could carry up to a one-year sentence in the county jail and require Welsh to register as a sex offender.
Los Altos police said there is at least one other victim in the case who has been identified from photos found on Welsh’s computer. There could be more victims identified, said officer Susan Anderson, who works undercover tracking sexual predators online through the city’s Internet Predator Program and was responsible for gathering the evidence needed to issue a search warrant for Welsh’s San Jose apartment.
The former eighth-grade teacher came under police suspicion last April when Welsh began having sexually explicit conversations with Anderson in a chat room on the Internet.
He bragged of prior sexual encounters with another 12-year-old girl, Anderson said.
Welsh was teaching at North Star Academy in Redwood City when he allegedly began pursuing a relationship with Anderson. School officials dismissed Welsh last September after Anderson notified them of the investigation. Welsh was teaching at the school on a probationary period as a new employee of the Redwood City School District, Anderson said. A background check revealed no evidence of a criminal past.
Welsh apparently had taught eighth-grade science at various public and private schools in the Peninsula over the past 10 years. He did not teach in Los Altos.
The choir teacher
Homestead High School teacher Brett Michael Bartlett, 25, pleaded guilty to five charges related to sexual relationships with three former teen students last week.
Charges include unlawful sex with a minor and misdemeanor possession of child pornography. Police obtained a film allegedly showing Bartlett having sex with one of the victims. He faces up to six years in jail if convicted.
This is the second time this year Bartlett has been arrested. He was charged last month for having unlawful sex with a 16-year-old and a 15-year-old. Both teens were his students.
He was arrested again March 2 when investigators uncovered new information about a third victim, another 16-year-old student.
Bartlett taught band and choir at the Cupertino school for the past three years. Homestead serves students in south Los Altos.
The priest
The case against Pritchard began last week, 32 years after the alleged sexual abuse took place.
A former student, now in his 40s, alleged that Pritchard sexually abused him in 1972 and 1973 while he was a student at St. Martin of Tours School in San Jose.
This is the first trial against a priest in Northern California. Pritchard died in 1988 before the former student reported any allegations. The suit is against the San Francisco Diocese.
