XPost: sac.general, alt.homosexual, alt.politics.immigration   
   XPost: rec.scouting.issues   
   From: media@glaad.org   
      
   MARTINEZ — Ron Guinto molested young boys inside tents, motel   
   rooms and dorms, even inside his Richmond classroom while class   
   was in session, a prosecutor told a jury Monday during opening   
   statements in the former charter school teacher’s molestation   
   trial.   
      
   For more than a decade, Guinto would target almost exclusively   
   11- to 12-year-old boys, often from Spanish-speaking families,   
   who looked up to him as their instructor, online friend, church   
   volunteer and Boy Scout leader, prosecutor Alison Chandler   
   explained during opening statements in the molestation case that   
   allegedly stretched from the East to South Bay to Yosemite and   
   campsites across Northern California.   
      
   Guinto, 34, has pleaded not guilty to 90 molestation counts   
   involving 15 boys, including anal sex and oral copulation,   
   dating back to the early 2000s when he was a San Jose State   
   University college student.   
   On Monday, Guinto, wearing a dark gray suit, sat silently taking   
   notes. His family members sat behind him in court, his mother   
   reading Bible prayers to herself. They declined to comment   
   outside court.   
      
   Guinto’s attorney Ernie Castillo told jurors his client was   
   living a “gay teacher’s nightmare,” saying that “locker room-   
   type behavior among guys” was being misconstrued as sexual   
   abuse. Castillo said one boy’s complaint about how Guinto   
   addressed him on Facebook launched a witch hunt that led to   
   “false rumors, gossip.”   
      
   Castillo shared for the first time publicly that Guinto had a   
   handwritten addendum added to his contract with Making Waves   
   allowing him to communicate with students on sensitive topics   
   involving Camp Epic, an extracurricular leadership group he   
   founded.   
      
   “His career was turned upside down by administrators at Making   
   Waves,” Castillo said. “Being a gay teacher was not easy.”   
      
   The bulk of the alleged abuse occurred between 2010 and 2013,   
   while Guinto worked for Making Waves Academy, a Richmond charter   
   school.   
      
   Eleven of his alleged victims were Making Waves students who   
   attended Camp Epic, a “Boy Scouts troop hybrid,” which professed   
   to teach children leadership skills and promised college   
   scholarships to children who worked their way up the ranks,   
   Chandler said.   
      
   “Camp Epic was a front. A front so the defendant could gain   
   access to young children to molest them,” Chandler told the   
   jury. “They would hike into the middle of nowhere with no   
   phones, no iPads, nowhere to phone a friend for help.”   
      
   Guinto would choose which students would stay in his tent and   
   encouraged everyone to share sleeping bags for warmth. Those who   
   turned down his requests were left to sleep in the cold,   
   Chandler said.   
      
   “What happens at Camp Epic, stays at Camp Epic,” Chandler said   
   Guinto would tell the children. And it did, up until 2013 when   
   one boy told his mother about the abuse and Guinto was exposed.   
      
   Chandler told the jury that Guinto was 20 when he allegedly   
   molested his first 12-year-old victim in his San Jose State dorm   
   room. Two of his South Bay victims were under his watch as their   
   Boy Scouts volunteer, Chandler said. The organization eventually   
   sanctioned him.   
      
   Guinto portrayed himself as an ROTC mentor to the parents of one   
   of his first victims, even creating a permission slip, Chandler   
   told the jury. “That seedling grew to Camp Epic 10 years later,”   
   she said.   
      
   Now 27 years old, that victim was watching “American Idol” on TV   
   with his family when a news teaser during a commercial break   
   showed Guinto’s face following his 2013 arrest.   
      
   “It rippled through his entire body and he told police,” she   
   said.   
      
   Castillo countered that Camp Epic was a legitimate leadership   
   program for kids hatched as part of Guinto’s master’s thesis   
   while attending Touro University in Vallejo.   
      
   “Not only were kids enjoying going to Camp Epic, they would   
   return over and over and over again,” Castillo said.   
      
   The defense attorney showed jurors a copy of Guinto’s Making   
   Waves employment contract with a handwritten addendum below his   
   signature with an asterisk.   
      
   “Will have communications with students outside (Making Waves   
   Academy) through Camp Epic, outdoor youth leadership program,   
   which may involve conversations with sensitive topics,” the   
   contract wording states.   
      
   Castillo said that gave permission for Guinto to communicate   
   over social media with students, despite school rules forbidding   
   it.   
      
   “That single (parent Facebook) complaint had nothing to do with   
   sexual allegations, and led Making Waves to assume false   
   assumptions … and led them on a wild goose chase,” Castillo said.   
      
   He indicated that Guinto, who is in custody, will take the   
   witness stand during the trial, which is expected to last months.   
      
   http://www.eastbaytimes.com/2016/10/31/trial-for-east-bay-   
   teacher-charged-with-molesting-15-boys-begins/   
       
      
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