A pre-trial hearing in the case of a married couple, one of them a former teacher at Westminster High School, accused of sexual assault on a minor, has been scheduled for Thursday, Aug. 30.
According to the Orange County District Attorney’s office, Daniel Shepard, then a teacher at WHS, and his wife, Gay Davidson-Shepard, a former teacher at Mesa View Middle School in Huntington Beach, were involved with a 17-year-old boy.
While he was attending Westminster High in 2009, the couple allegedly started “grooming” the youth by inviting him to their Huntington Beach home to drink alcohol, play board games and watch movies.
In April, the two teachers allegedly first assaulted the boy. According to the district attorney’s office, each week they got him intoxicated with liquor and engaged in a variety of sexual acts with him
That continued, it’s alleged, until December 2009.
Daniel Shepard was also accused of asking the boy to e-mail nude photos of himself, and of taking nude photos of the boy and the illegal sex acts.
The couple was arrested in April 2011, and a court order banned the woman from contacting the victim. However, the youth’s mother reported to the Westminster Police Department that Gay Davidson-Shepard had sought to reach him via telephone and texting as late at Nov. 28, 2011.
The hearing is set for Westminster Justice Center, Courtroom One, at 8:30 a.m.
