(The Lion) — A California jury convicted a former high school teacher of multiple sex crimes against students Friday, including sending a sexually explicit video of himself to a 15-year-old girl.
Nicholas Moseby, 44, was found guilty in Contra Costa County Superior Court of felony counts of committing a lewd act on a child and distributing harmful material to a minor, and three misdemeanors, including sexual battery and child molestation. Another felony charge for a lewd act ended in a mistrial, and the jury found him not guilty of a felony charge of a lewd act with a child under 14.
The six-week trial included testimony from five teenage girls and Moseby, who testified in his defense, the East Bay Times reported.
Moseby was arrested in 2022 and charged with sex crimes against two girls, ages 14 and 15, but additional witnesses came forward after the charges were publicized. Moseby, a former biology teacher at San Ramon Valley High School and cheerleading coach with NorCal Elite, claimed he was the target of a smear campaign.
His public defender told jurors this month his client intended to send the explicit video to a sex worker, not a student. “He talks to a lot of sex workers,” she said in court, according to the East Bay Times.
Moseby’s past includes a 2015 prostitution charge in Oakland, public drunkenness in Santa Barbara in 2010, and a 2009 incident in Arizona where he was accused of providing alcohol to a teenager who reported being sexually assaulted afterward, the Mercury News reported.
Moseby informed the San Ramon Valley Unified School District of the 2009 case. He received a deferment in the prostitution case and the public drunkenness case was unresolved, the Mercury News reported. A warrant remains active for him in Arizona.
He also admitted to having an affair with a high school senior he was coaching in Arizona but said that she was 18, and to sending a sexual picture to another student who was 18, Danville San Ramon reported. “The defendant is into teens,” prosecutor Jessica Murad told the jury, citing his history and online porn searches that included the word “teen.”
Moseby was transferred to Diablo Vista Middle School in 2022 after multiple students complained about inappropriate comments, such as calling girls “hot,” according to the Mercury News. Several students are suing the school district for failing to act sooner.
He has been free on $200,000 bail since shortly after his 2022 arrest. His sentencing is scheduled for Oct. 28.
