| Friends plead for teacher in student sex case By Ramon Coronado -- Bee Staff Writer Published 2:15 am PDT Thursday, July 7, 2005 |
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Margaret De Barraicua, a McClatchy High School intern teacher charged with having sex with one of her 16-year-old students, took advantage of a developmentally disabled teenager, a prosecutor will argue today in Sacramento Superior Court. "The victim was particularly vulnerable as he was a special education student," Deputy District Attorney Kevin Higgins said in court papers. At a preliminary hearing scheduled this afternoon the prosecutor, who maintains the 30-year-old teacher violated a "position of trust," will push for four felony charges that carry a potential punishment ranging from probation to three years in prison. But two dozen college professors, teachers, longtime friends, neighbors, a pastor and family members say a prison sentence is too harsh for De Barraicua. In letters written in support of De Barraicua, they portray her as a community service volunteer, an accomplished student, devout Catholic and a loving mother. "I believe Margaret has done something completely out of character," wrote Fausto Avendaño, a professor of Spanish literature at California State University, Sacramento. Marcos Garcia, who has known De Barraicua for the past 13 years, described the Mustard Seed School volunteer as a person who has a "stream of qualities that many of us only hope to mirror." Yolanda Goyenechea, a mortgage company branch manager and longtime friend, described De Barraicua as "philanthropic by nature." De Barraicua's lawyer, Philip Cozens, said he will be asking that his client's felonies be reduced to a single misdemeanor at today's hearing. "A misdemeanor is all the punishment this case deserves," Cozens said Wednesday. De Barraicua was arrested Feb. 19 after Sacramento police found her with her student in a parked car behind the Leonardo da Vinci Elementary School. De Barraicua and the teenager were in the front seat and her 2-year-old son was in a safety seat in the rear of the car. The woman's husband later took custody of the toddler. Although the teenager told police he'd had sex with his teacher only once before, De Barraicua admitted to having sex three other times. The first incident was at her home in December and the other two were in her car. The teenager told police having sex was his idea, and he was never threatened or promised favors. De Barraicua said she was in love with the boy, according to a police report. De Barraicua, who began working at McClatchy High School in September, was placed on paid administrative leave after her arrest. Higgins maintains that De Barraicua not only took advantage of a boy half her age, but that the boy was especially vulnerable because he has been a special education student since 1996. He spends 80 percent of his class time in special education services, according to school records. Although the boy was participating in an anger management program stemming from a "fighting incident" last year, he has "shown improvement in his academic skills" and is "polite and friendly," according to an Oct. 29, 2004, evaluation report. Sacramento lawyer Daniel J. Sullivan represents the boy and his family. In a letter of support for De Barraicua, the Rev. Michael Jurna of Marysville said he believed the teenager should share some responsibility. "His consensual decision to participate in this encounter should be accountable," said Jurna, a family friend. Margaret Carol Brown, another Sacramento State professor who wrote a letter of support, said she attended the defendant's wedding. The professor said she was "moved by the prayer circle the family formed around Margaret and her husband," Brown wrote. De Barraicua's father, Louis De Barraicua, a retired Air Force medical lab technician who works as a physician's assistant for a Yuba County clinic, wrote that his daughter, who was the first of five children, has lost her job, her child and her career in teaching. "She was caught in a very complex net of stressors and emotions that overwhelmed her," he wrote. De Barraicua's brother, Louis A. De Barraicua, a middle school teacher in Los Angeles, said his sister would seek out his advice during her first days of teaching. He said he told his sister to "set clear boundaries" with students who approached her sexually. Higgins cites the brother's letter in his court papers as evidence that De Barraicua knew what she was doing was wrong. "We know from the defendant that she had talked to family members about what she was doing before she was ultimately caught in the act," Higgins wrote. http://www.sacbee.com/content/news/story/13190645p-14033871c.html |
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