Teacher and Godmother, Carmina Erica Lopez, abuses 11-year-old

[Unamused Cat]

Carmina Lopez in court

CHULA VISTA — The teacher made such an impression on the family that they asked her to be their son's godmother.

Yesterday, police accused Carmina Erica Lopez, 32, of using that trust to hide a four-year sexual relationship with the boy, which allegedly began when he was an 11-year-old sixth-grader.

Lopez, a resident of Mission Hills in San Diego, was arrested Wednesday night. She is being held without bail at Las Colinas Detention Facility on 83 counts, including continuous sexual abuse of a child, aggravated sexual assault of a child and sexual intercourse with a minor.

Investigators believe Lopez began having sex with the boy, who is now 15, when she was his teacher in 2004 at Nestor Elementary School in South County, said Chula Vista Police Chief Rick Emerson.

Lopez, currently a fifth-grade teacher at Sunnyslope Elementary School, has been teaching at that Palm City school since 2005.

The boy is seeing a counselor because of psychological problems, and information about the relationship emerged during a session, police said. The boy told the county's Child Welfare Services that Lopez had forced him to have sex with her, authorities said.

The relationship ended in June 2008, police said. They do not know why.

Chula Vista police are handling the case because Lopez lived in that city when many of the alleged offenses occurred. Police said the abuses occurred at Lopez's home, in a car and in school.

http://www3.signonsandiego.com/stori...sex-cas/?metro

[Nell]

The relationship ended in June 2008, police said. They do not know why.

He got too old for her?

[philly_phan]

He got too old for her?

Good one...

[joo]

This neighbors reaction made me lmao...

On Manning Way, where Lopez once lived just around the corner from Sunnyslope Elementary, neighbors reacted to the arrest with skepticism.
“Carmina? I don't think so,” said Carmen de Guzman, a longtime next-door neighbor of Lopez. “She loved kids, but not like that. I don't believe it.”

[blue_zombie]

People have more skeletons hiding in their closets than anyone would ever guess. I'm sure that everyone on here can agree that there are things they don't tell anyone, and that if that closet door were ever opened, more bones would fall out than they would care to admit. That doesn't mean all of our skeletons are the murder/incest/sexual predator kind.....I'm just sayin' you never REALLY know people, especially people like your neighbors. So beware!!!! (I have a crazy marine who lives by me, I avoid him AT ALL COSTS!)

[buggysmommy]

I know someone who worked with her-

This woman has a 4 year old child that may belong to the godson!

[Dakota Valkyrie]

Bail was reduced from $2 million to $150,000 for an elementary school teacher charged with molesting a boy who was her godson and former student.
[...]
As a precaution, the judge said that if Lopez makes bail, she must stay away from children, with the exception of her 4-year-old son.
[...]
The accusations against Lopez surfaced in January when the boy, who is now 15, wrote a letter to a counselor saying that he had been molested by his teacher, who also was his godmother.

The boy was being held in Juvenile Hall at the time after being arrested in December for threatening an uncle with a baseball bat and punching him in the jaw, according to documents filed in court with the motion to reduce bail.
[...]
Lopez, a single mother, was a fifth-grade teacher at Sunnyslope Elementary School. She was placed on paid leave pending the outcome of her case, school officials have said.

http://www3.signonsandiego.com/stori...reduced/?metro

[Dakota Valkyrie]

A 15-year-old boy told a judge yesterday that his former teacher, who is also his godmother, demanded that he have sex with her over a four-year period in exchange for gifts, alcohol and other favors.

He said Carmina Erica Lopez had sex with him in her car, on a table in her classroom, in her bedroom, in her toddler's bedroom and in a guest room of her home.

“If I wanted a ride home or if I wanted something, then I'd have to have sex with her to get it,” the boy testified in Chula Vista Superior Court.

He said Lopez gave him many gifts, including a dirt bike motorcycle, boots and a radio. He said she also gave him money to buy marijuana and once bought beer for him.

When he threatened to report her, Lopez, the mother of a 4-year-old son, threatened suicide, the boy testified.

“I remember her telling me that if I told, she was going to kill herself and she was going to kill her son,” the boy testified.

Lopez, 33, must stand trial on 10 felony charges of molesting the boy and one charge of furnishing marijuana to a minor, Judge H. Ronald Domnitz ruled. He ordered a May 18 hearing to set a trial date.
[...]
Under questioning by defense lawyer Robert Boyce, the boy acknowledged that he initially told investigators that Lopez had never touched him inappropriately but he said he did that to cover up for her.

At the time, the boy said he was trying to sort out his feelings about what had happened. He also said he had taken advantage of Lopez's desire for sex to get things he wanted.

The boy said he ended the relationship when Lopez told him she wanted to marry him and have children with him.

http://www3.signonsandiego.com/stori...d-sex-godmoth/

[Dakota Valkyrie]

She's on trial.



He says:

A South Bay teen testified Thursday his former sixth-grade teacher and godmother supplied him with sex, marijuana, beer and trips to Las Vegas, Disneyland and Magic Mountain, 10News reported.

The teen, identified only as Christopher R., said sex with Carmina Lopez, 33, began when he was 11 years old and started with fondling.

"Well, she used to touch me inappropriately … my general places," Christopher told the court.

He told of being tutored in reading by Lopez while he was a student in her sixth-grade class, and said he had sex with Lopez "about, like, 40 to 50 times."

Lopez cried when the district attorney showed cards and pictures Christopher had sent her when he was younger, with notations like "love always" and other endearing markings.

Just before his 12th birthday, Christopher said she began initiating sexual contact. He said some of the sex acts occurred in the backseat of her car, in her classroom and at her house.

"I just remember her grabbing me," Christopher testified.

Christopher's testimony was sometimes vague, sometimes graphic, and he said he was a kid and didn't really understand what was going on. He said he didn't like it.

"I'd wake up with lipstick on my face ... she would try to take a picture with lipstick on my face … mess around with me like that." said Christopher. He told the court he slept "sometimes on the bed but mostly on the floor because I didn't want her sleeping next to me."

But Christopher told the court Lopez drove him around to buy marijuana and beer. He also said she bought him a dirt bike and took him to amusement parks.

"I'd do it to get what I want," said Christopher.

In the end, he said he wanted out, despite her doing what he wanted, including getting breast implants to please him. When he told Lopez the affair was over, Christopher said she "went psycho" and threatened to kill herself and her son.
[...]

http://www.10news.com/news/22241801/detail.html

She says:

An emotional Carmina Erica Lopez yesterday denied that she molested her godson and former pupil, saying instead that the teenager repeatedly raped her.

Sighing heavily and at times sobbing, Lopez testified in her own defense at the conclusion of the first week of her trial. She has pleaded not guilty to 10 charges that she molested the now-16-year-old boy over a four-year period.
[...]

She said she had a good relationship with the youth, who grew up living with relatives, abandoned by his mother and not knowing who his father was. He was a below-average student when she first met him as a tutor in an after-school program when the youth was a first-grader.

She said that as the boy got older, he became more difficult to deal with, but she remained close to him.

Lopez testified that after she moved into a house in Chula Vista, the boy volunteered to paint the interior of the home and do yardwork.

In autumn 2007, he was working at her home. Lopez said she was upstairs kneeling on a countertop beneath a linen cabinet when the youth approached her from behind. He grabbed her, slung her over his shoulder and took her to the bedroom, she said.

Lopez testified that he bit her cheek and told her to take her pants off, but that she was able to fend him off. The youth tried to laugh off the attack as a practical joke, and the two went back to work, she said.

Several minutes later, he attacked again, and this time he raped her, she said. She also testified that the boy warned her that if she told anyone, he would “turn it back” on her and accuse her of molesting him.

Lopez, who has a young son, said she did not tell anyone out of fear of losing her son and career. She is a teacher who is now on leave from the South Bay Unified School District.

Lopez also said she harbored some hope at first that the attack on her was an aberration.

“I wanted to believe the little boy I still loved was still in there, and he would resurface,” she said.
[...]

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2...er-repeatedly/

[Dakota Valkyrie]

Closing arguments were made Friday in the case of a teacher accused of having sex with her godson.
[...]

Deputy District Attorney Leonard Trinh said, "She was his godmother. She was his teacher. Over the course of the trial you saw how obsessed this defendant became over a 14-year-old boy."

The prosecution stated Lopez was obsessed with the boy only known as Christopher R. Now 16 years old, he was 11 when prosecutors said the sexual relationship began.
[...]

In Boyce's closing argument, he said Christopher raped Lopez and told the court she was the victim in the case.

"He should be sitting where Carmina's sitting. That's why this case feels so wrong," said Boyce.

Lopez's attorney said it wasn't until Christopher was sent to Juvenile Hall for attacking his uncle that he first said anything about Lopez.

"And so what's he do? He plays the molest card," said Boyce.

Both sides said it comes down to who the jury believes most.

"If you say to yourself, 'I believe Christopher R.,' you're done," said Trinh.

http://www.10news.com/news/22319152/detail.html

The didn't believe him:

A South Bay elementary school teacher was acquitted Monday of charges she had sex with her underage godson, who was also one of her students.

Jurors deliberated about four hours before finding Carmina Erica Lopez, 33, not guilty of 10 counts of committing a lewd act on a minor and one count of furnishing marijuana to a minor.

http://www.10news.com/news/22337656/detail.html

Juror Fred Disharoon said the jurors did not believe the boy's testimony and that every vote the jurors took was unanimous.

"He wasn't believable," Disharoon said. "He was not credible...I can't think of anything he said that we believed."

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2...estation-case/