A South Bay teacher accused of molesting her student who is also her godchild took the stand in her own defense inside a downtown San Diego courtroom Friday.
Carmina Lopez, 33, is charged with eight counts of unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor. Prosecutors allege Lopez started a sexual relationship with the boy, who was in her sixth-grade class when she was teaching at Nestor Elementary School in 2004.
On the stand Friday, Lopez told a very different story of a troubled boy she feared and about what happened when that boy came to her home to help paint.
Lopez said the former student grabbed her, threw her on the ground and began biting her cheek. ""He said 'Pull your pants down, pull your pants down' and I remember thinking 'I'm not going to pull my down he can bite me all he wants, I'm not going to pull my pants down,'” testified Lopez.
She told the court that she convinced him to get off her, and then he started laughing and saying it was just a joke --- also saying he would turn things around if she ever told anybody.
After that incident, Lopez testified that the alleged victim raped her. “He took me to master bedroom, and put me on the ground, and this time he raped me,” she testified.
“I remember the top part of my body was immobile I couldn't move the top part of my body and my right leg was in that direction,” she testified.
When asked why she didn't alert someone who was in the home at the time of both incidents, she said, “I didn't want her to know. Because I was afraid of him I was afraid of her threats.”
The victim, who is now 15, said the last incident happened in early 2008, police said. The alleged acts occurred at school, in Lopez's home and in a car in both Chula Vista and San Diego (Lopez lived in both cities over the last four years, police said).
Lopez has a 4-year old son whose father is Lopez's ex-boyfriend, according to Chula Vista Police Sergeant Juan Cervantes. Since the alleged relationship began, Lopez began teaching at Sunnyslope School.
