By Town Crier Staff Report
The following are summaries of cases that have made the headlines in the past nine years.
The Internet predator
Los Altos resident Robert Jay Tashbook earned notoriety in 1996 as the first person in California, and only the second in the United States, to be charged under a federal law designed to protect minors from falling victim to molesters using Internet chat rooms at their point of contact, according to the Summer 1996 issue of “Networker.” The 28-year-old was arrested in 1996 after he traveled to Texas to bring a 15-year-old he met in a chat room back to his home.
Tashbook ended up in court seven years later after he convinced four teen girls he met over the Internet to travel to Los Altos, where he forced them into having sex with him and his friends in exchange for assistance with a modeling career.
A Federal Grand Jury convicted Tashbook on 11 counts of sex-related offenses. Each count included a mandatory minimum sentence of 30 years in prison.
‘Grandpa Jim’
A nursery school volunteer known locally as “Grandpa Jim” ended up in jail after allegedly attempting to kidnap a 9-year-old girl from Shoup Park in 1996. During the investigation, police discovered that Los Altos resident James Stiritz had a history of persuing and stalking more than six girls in three counties.
Four of the victims, all 4-year-old girls, were allegedly molested at the Los Altos Parent Preschool where Stiritz volunteered.
The P.E. teacher
Richard Vargas appeared to be popular with students and respected by colleagues during the nine years he taught seventh- and eighth-grade boys P.E. at Egan Intermediate School in Los Altos. Police arrested Vargas for selling and distributing child pornography to a police informant in 1996.
Vargas was required to register as a sex offender for life and lost his teaching credential.
The leadership teacher
Terrance Hagan, a 29-year-old leadership teacher at Egan Intermediate School in Los Altos, was sent to state prison for six years in 2000 for having sex with two teens he met at local high schools. One victim was 14, the other 15.
The priest
The late Rev. Joseph Pritchard came to St. Nicholas Catholic Church in 1979 where he spent his final years as pastor. The Archdiocese transferred him there following alleged sexual abuse complaints by students at St. Martin of Tours, San Jose. By most accounts, Pritchard was a well-liked pastor with a good sense of humor. Few St. Nicholas parishioners were aware of the alleged abuse complaints until recently when a former student, now in his 40s, filed charges against the San Francisco Diocese alleging that Pritchard sexually abused him in 1972 and 1973. The case went to trial last month.
The science teacher
Los Altos police obtained an arrest warrant for a 57-year-old science teacher last month after discovering child pornography and evidence of chat room contacts with underage girls on his home computer. David Joseph Welsh 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.
Welsh came under police suspicion last April when he began having sexually explicit conversations with an undercover Los Altos police officer in an Internet chat room.
He allegedly bragged of prior sexual encounters with another 12-year-old girl.
School officials from North Star Academy in Redwood City dismissed Welsh last September after police notified them of the investigation.
The choir teacher
Homestead High School teacher Brett Michael Bartlett, 25, pleaded guilty to five charges related to sexual relationships with three former teenage students last month. Police obtained a film allegedly showing Bartlett having sex with one of the victims. He faces up to six years in jail if convicted.
Bartlett taught band and choir at the Cupertino school for the past three years. Homestead serves students in south Los Altos.
The coach
Jeff Lamson had brought the Mustangs varsity football team at his alma mater Homestead High School to the playoffs three years in a row before his seven-year career as varsity coach and athletic director came to an end. Lamson resigned from the Fremont Union High School District in 1997 after being arrested for molesting two students at the school. The school serves students in Los Altos.
Dropped charges
A yearlong police investigation of a popular English teacher accused of fondling a student at a local private high school failed to uncover sufficient evidence to file charges. The District Attorney’s Office dropped the case in 2003. The school reinstated the teacher following its own investigation, which included a private polygraph and parent and colleague testimonials of his character.
Doubts about the girl’s credibility arose after the 15-year-old received a disciplinary citation for “dishonesty regarding final exam.”
