Teacher who claimed bicycle accident drove him to rape student avoids jail
A teacher who claimed that a bicycle accident led him to rape a student was sentenced to probation and community service instead of jail.
Jonathan Sammartino, 37, will not face one year in prison and will not be listed on the sex offender registry in San Diego, California after his sentencing on Wednesday. He claimed a bike injury damaged his brain and left him unable to control his impulses around the child.
However, he is barred from teaching in any capacity after initially pleading guilty to a felony count of unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor.
Those charges were dropped because the 17-year-old victim said ‘she wanted to move on with her life,’ according to court documents reported by Fox 5. She was a year under the age of consent in California when the attacks happened.
Their first sexual was encounter was in 2016, when the victim, who was his student at La Jolla Country Day School, met him at his car at midnight. Similar encounters went on for months, with Sammartino saying he didn’t trust himself around her, prosecutors said.
The victim can be heard screaming at Sammartino in a phone call that was played during the preliminary hearing.
‘You knew I was 17,’ the victim said. ‘You knew I was your student. You knew it was my first time and I lost my virginity to you.’
Sammartino can be heard apologizing several times throughout the phone call.
‘I don’t have a good answer because I wasn’t thinking through what I was doing,’ he said. ‘I can’t believe that I did that.’
His lawyer cited a bike accident that caused a brain injury which inhibited his impulse control and the ability to make reasonable judgements.
Sammartino said in court that he was ‘not the same person’ after the accident and was seeking more treatment to deal with his impairment.
‘I am very sorry for everything that has happened and for the misery caused by my unfortunate involvement with (the victim.)’ Sammartino said. ‘I know that my behaviors disrupted her life, my own life and the community.’
The Deputy District Attorney Martin Doyle said that Sammartino has ‘changed and healed’ since the sexual encounter in 2016.
‘There is not an iota of evidence that this conduct was an expression of an underlying character trait on his part,’ Doyle said. ‘I see no indication that this man is predatory or is likely to repeat this conduct with another person or is a danger to others.’
Sammartino has been ordered to complete 400 hours of community service by next August, his defense attorney said.
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