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SAN DIEGO —
A former staffer of an after-school program at Madison High School in Clairemont was sentenced Wednesday to a year of probation after he admitted to sending text messages with sexual content to one student and groping another, the San Diego City Attorney’s office said.
Stephen Tyler Wescott, 31, must register as a sex offender for the next 10 years as part of his deal to plead guilty to two misdemeanor counts in the San Diego Superior Court case. If Wescott fails at probation or fails to register, he faces up to 120 days in jail.
The incidents happened in spring 2018 and involved two girls, aged 15 and 17 at the time. Wescott agreed to plead guilty to sending harmful matter with the intent to seduce a minor, a charge involving the older girl. He also agreed to sexual battery for touching the younger girl. The sentence was reached as part of a plea deal struck earlier this year.
Wescott’s defense attorney, Vikas Bajaj, said Wednesday that his client told him his goal was to “make sure nobody is hurting anymore.”
Bajaj said Wescott told him: “I want to take full responsibility and make sure these girls know that I am truly remorseful.”
In a news release announcing the sentencing, the City Attorney’s Office said Wescott worked for an after-school program called IMIN at Madison High School from summer 2017 through June 2018. The office said he “groomed both of his victims over time” to more easily manipulate them.
The office said both girls reported that Wescott texted or used social media to talk to them about sex and masturbation. He reportedly sent the older victim an obscene picture of himself and asked her to do the same.
According to an affidavit seeking his arrest, the older girl later recorded him on cellphone video in May 2018, masturbating while sitting behind a desk as he supervised students in a classroom.
The younger girl reported that he followed her into an empty classroom that same month, pulled down her shorts, groped her and touched himself.
Wescott was charged with misdemeanors in 2019. COVID-19 court closures and delays slowed the progress of the case.
Source: This post first appeared on sandiegouniontribune.com
