- Teacher Charged In Boy's Crash
Bee Metro Staff
A spokesman for the San Juan Unified School District said Friday no immediate disciplinary action will be taken against a schoolteacher arrested on charges of giving liquor to a 16-year-old former student the night the boy got into a high-speed car crash in May.
Richard [sic] Robert D. Stevens, 50, an eighth-grade teacher at Will Rogers Intermediate School, was charged Wednesday with contributing to the delinquency of a minor. He was released on $1,000 bail.
Two people were seriously injured in the crash. The boy was convicted of felony drunken driving and felony hit-and-run June 23 and sentenced to 18 months to three years in California Youth Authority.
"Being arrested is different from being convicted," said Richard Schromm, personnel director for the San Juan school district. "If he is convicted, we'll review it. If it is something we are able to take action on, we certainly would do whatever action is permissible."
In a related arrest Friday, detectives booked Robert Paxton, 51, a Sacramento truck driver, on charges of engaging in oral sex with the same boy. The car the boy was driving when the accident occurred shortly after 2 a.m. on May 14 had been a present from Paxton, the youth's mother said.
Sheriff's Detective Pat Flood said Stevens, who once lived with the boy, admitted giving him two alcoholic drinks that night, but the youth had a .19 blood-alcohol level, nearly twice the legal limit for intoxication.
Stevens could not be reached for comment.
California Highway Patrol spokesman Bob Benton said the boy was driving west on Madison Avenue east of Milburn Street at speeds between 70 to 100 mph and smashed into a sloer-moving vehicle that burst into flames on impact.
The driver of that car, Christopher John Carleton, 21, was burned over 23 percent of his body. Carleton's passenger, 18-year-old Diane Serraro, was burned over 55 percent of her body. Both were treated at University Medical Center.
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1932 - 1996 (63 years)
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