Elkis Hermida
California Department of Correction/AP Photo
He was convicted of lewd acts with a child and sentenced in July 2011 to three years in prison, according to KPCC, which first reported the story this week.
The girl and her family then filed a civil lawsuit against L.A. Unified, stating that the school district was negligent in both the hiring of Hermida and the supervision of a student.
However, once the case came to trial in November of last year, lawyers for the school district argued that not only did the school have no knowledge of the relationship, but also that the girl had consensual sex with Hermida and that she should be held accountable for it.
"She lied to her mother so she could have sex with her teacher," W. Keith Wyatt, L.A. Unified's trial attorney in the case, told KPCC.
He added: "She went to a motel in which she engaged in voluntary consensual sex with her teacher. Why shouldn't she be responsible for that?"
The judge agreed and L.A. Unified was cleared of any wrongdoing.
The school district is now under fire for its handling of this case and others like it. California is one of a number of states where the age of consent laws conflict with the civil laws, allowing for a child to be found a victim in one case and at fault in another.
"It doesn’t make sense," Jennifer Drobac, a law professor at Indiana University, told KPCC. "The same parties, same behavior, same everything, consent is no defense in a criminal trial.
"But the same set of facts in a civil prosecution, consent is a complete defense. How is that possible? It's not logical," she concluded.
Attorney John Manly, who is representing families in a separate case against the district, added to the Los Angeles Times : "The belief that middle school children can consent to sexual activity is something one would expect to hear from pedophile advocates, not the second-largest school district in the U.S."
Wyatt, however, maintains that a 14-year-old girl is completely capable of consenting to sex.
"Making a decision as to whether or not to cross the street when traffic is coming, that takes a level of maturity and that's a much more dangerous decision than to decide, 'Hey, I want to have sex with my teacher,' " he told the radio station.
Wyatt has since apologized for his remarks, issuing a statement on Thursday.
"Upon reflection, I realize how insensitive the comments I made to KPCC were, and I am truly sorry to this young woman and her family," he wrote.
"My statements were ill thought out and poorly articulated and by no means reflect the opinions of the school district or its leadership. It is regrettable that my remarks have taken away from the respectful manner in which this case was tried."
The girl and her family plan to appeal the verdict, KPCC reports.
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