A former Granite Hills High School teacher accused of sexual misconduct with an underage former female student was ordered Thursday to stand trial on felony and misdemeanor charges.
Gerald Lopez, 55, who taught English and coached sports at the East County school, was arrested last year by El Cajon police for alleged conduct involving the then 17-year-old victim.
Lopez is charged with felony counts of possessing child pornography and sending harmful matter to a minor, as well as a misdemeanor count of annoying or molesting a child. He was held to answer on those charges following a two-day preliminary hearing in El Cajon Superior Court and faces up to four years and eight months in state prison if convicted of all charges.
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The alleged victim described during the preliminary hearing how she first saw Lopez as a mentor, but their interactions progressed to flirtatious text messages and sharing pictures.
Numerous text message exchanges between the pair accounted for most of the evidence presented during the hearing. According to testimony, police discovered more than 8,000 text messages were sent between Lopez and the girl over the span of a few months.
The girl also sent photographs of herself to Lopez and provided him access to an online photo album that allegedly contained semi-nude photographs of herself, according to testimony.
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Though she testified that she cared for him at the time, she said now she feels "completely the opposite."
She testified that her mother discovered what was happening and reported it to the school. Lopez was initially placed on unpaid leave, but school district officials announced in August that he was no longer working for the district.
Lopez also allegedly sent the victim pictures of himself that Deputy District Attorney Joshua Brisbane argued in court were "sexually motivated."
"Under the guise of caring for her, he manipulated (the victim)," the prosecutor said.
Lopez remains out of custody on $70,000 bail.
