Former Redlands teacher who sexually abused middle school students released from prison decades early – Redlands Daily Facts

Sean Ramiro Lopez. (Photo courtesy of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation)

A former Redlands middle school teacher who was convicted of sexually abusing three male students in 2005 and sentenced to more than 74 years in prison has been released from prison and now lives in Palm Desert.

Sean Ramiro Lopez, 50, who taught at Clement Middle School from 1999 to 2002, is listed in the Megan’s Law database as a “very low risk” to commit a new sex offense. Under the terms of his release, Lopez will spend the first six months of his probation in transitional housing.

Lopez was released from Mule Creek Prison in Ione on May 1, said Mary Xjimenez, spokeswoman for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. She said Lopez qualified for parole under the state’s Elder Parole Program, which makes prisoners age 50 or older eligible for parole hearings if they have served 20 continuous years of their sentence. Lopez turns 50 in June 2023.

The program, which came into effect in 2018, previously allowed parole reviews for inmates aged 60 and over who had served at least 25 years of continuous incarceration. The parameters were changed in 2021.

“As part of this program, Lopez attended an elder parole hearing. The Board of Parole Hearings found him eligible for parole at his initial eligibility hearing on December 14, 2023,” Xjimenez said in an email.

Gov. Gavin Newsom referred the decision to the full parole board for en banc review on March 29, and the board affirmed the parole decision on April 17, Xjimenez said.

Another inmate sentenced to 170 years in prison for repeatedly raping a 14-year-old girl in his Perris home in 1994 will also be paroled through the senior parole program. The parole board will consider releasing 68-year-old Cody Woodson Klemp from the California Institution for Men in Chino in July, according to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

Klemp was 38 when he raped his victim. This said she was terrified that Klemp would reoffend and hurt her if he was released from prison.

School sacrifice

Shortly after he was hired as an eighth-grade English teacher at Clement Middle School in September 1999, Lopez began preying on mostly male students. His behavior continued until his arrest in February 2002.

Testimony during the trial revealed that Lopez invited female students to his home and sexually abused them under the guise that he was conducting a clinical study on growth-promoting hormones.

Lopez’s three victims testified that they were told to take pills or other substances, undergo measurements of their muscles and genitals, and masturbate while watching pornographic films so that Lopez could extract semen from their bodies with a syringe.

During his parole hearing, Lopez told commissioners that he paid his victims $80 to $100 to participate in the “genetic studies” for a weightlifting supplement that he told them would enlarge their penises and would enlarge their muscles. He told them that the semen samples were needed to measure their testosterone levels.

Lopez regularly invited students into his classroom during recess and lunch and engaged in sexually explicit conversations.

Failure to act

An investigation by the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing concluded that Clement teachers and administrators were aware of student and parent allegations of inappropriate behavior by Lopez for years but failed to take the complaints seriously and did nothing about them.

In response to the investigation, long-retired Clement Middle School principal Marilyn Kemple, 82, of Idyllwild, gave her testimony last year.

According to a 20-page letter from the commission to Kemple dated July 2021, obtained by the Southern California News Group, Lopez allegedly made a student take off his shirt and “play with his nipples in his classroom in front of the entire class.” .” That same fall, a teacher warned another student to “stay away” from Lopez.

And from 2000 until his arrest, several teachers and staff members witnessed Lopez driving off campus with students in his car. In addition, Kemple repeatedly failed to return phone calls from several parents regarding alleged sexual misconduct involving Lopez.

Parole hearing

During his parole eligibility hearing in December 2023, Lopez spoke openly about the shame and guilt he felt about his attraction to juvenile males because he knew it was wrong, a transcript of the hearing said.

He said his sacrifices satisfied his physical and emotional need for intimacy and helped him deal with his loneliness and feelings of insignificance. He justified his actions by not having sexual intercourse with them, although he did have oral sex with two of the boys.

Because of his “warped thinking” at the time, Lopez said, he reasoned that his behavior was acceptable “as long as I don’t have sex with them, as long as I don’t cause physical harm.”

He also admitted during the hearing that he had taken photos and videos of his victims for his later sexual gratification. Lopez said he realized the damage he caused to his victims was “immeasurable.”

“I didn’t believe then that I would have the negative impact on their lives that I have now had in incarcerating for over 20 years focusing on victims of sexual abuse,” Lopez said during the hearing.

Probation officers noted Lopez’s progress in addressing his deviant behavior, noting that he had read 40 books on the subject of pedophilia and treatment, particularly “Road to Freedom,” which “has been a staple of treatment for adult offenders for two decades.” “applied. He also participated in various treatment programs to develop empathy skills and address risky behaviors and distorted perceptions of right and wrong.

In addition, commissioners noted Lopez’s good behavior in prison and noted that, according to the hearing transcript, he did not engage in inappropriate sexual conduct while incarcerated.

The parole board also noted that Lopez’s physical condition had deteriorated in prison, including a recent hip surgery that forced him to use a cane.

Parole board members concluded that Lopez had changed to the point where he no longer posed an unreasonable risk to public safety.

Lawsuits, settlements

Redlands Unified School District officials did not respond to a request for comment. So far, the county has settled five lawsuits filed by Lopez’s victims for a total value of $14.9 million, said attorney Morgan Stewart of the Irvine law firm Manly, Stewart & Finaldi.

Stewart, who represented the three victims Lopez was convicted of sexually abusing as well as three other alleged victims, has two lawsuits pending against Lopez and the county.

“The release of serial pedophile Sean Ramiro Lopez sends a dangerous message to his many victims: that the abuse they suffered at his hands doesn’t matter,” Stewart said in a statement Tuesday.

Stewart and other attorneys in his firm have represented dozens of former students who claimed they were sexually abused by Redlands Unified teachers over the past 25 years, including victims of former Citrus Valley High School English teacher and football coach Laura Whitehurst, who was the child Police and court records show she raped her students in 2013 and had a long history of sexually abusing and harassing students at other schools where she taught.

District reporting error

A Southern California News Group investigation into Redlands Unified that began in 2018 and spanned more than two years found that for decades the school district frequently failed to report to authorities teachers and other staff members accused of harassing students and sexually abuse.

The investigation sparked investigations by the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights, the Commission on Teacher Certification and the U.S. Department of Justice.

Last month, the district entered into an agreement with the Office for Civil Rights to address concerns that the district did not adequately respond to reports of sexual misconduct against students, including by staff.

A series of violations detailed in a 20-page letter from OCR to the district included allegations that Redlands Unified failed to create or maintain sufficient records of its responses to sexual harassment complaints to ensure compliance Title IX, a federal law enacted in 1972 that protects individuals from discrimination based on sex in educational programs or activities that receive federal financial assistance.

Redlands Unified entered into a resolution agreement with OCR to correct its deficiencies. It did not admit any violations of Title IX but agreed, among other things, to ensure compliance through its Title IX coordinator and to revise its Title IX policies and procedures as necessary.