BY: Walker
Published 10 hours ago
Patrick John Mester a former high school band teacher was fired for inappropriate communications with the then-16-year-old girl in March 2021, per police, only to allegedly wind up in her bedroom seven months later.
Modesto City Schools issued a news release at the time, saying it “took immediate action to ensure he has zero contact with students, as well as revoked his right to visit our facilities,” the Modesto Bee reported. Mester had been employed in the school district since 2003.
In October that year, the same student’s mother allegedly found Mester in her daughter’s bedroom, which led to a second investigation by the Stanislaus County Sheriff’s Office. A three-year investigation carried out by the sheriff’s and the district attorney’s offices, which involved several interviews with the victim, resulted in Mester’s arrest Wednesday. Mester is facing charges for lewd acts with a minor between 14 and 15 years old and for attempting to meet with a minor for lewd purposes.
The three-year period between the first arrest and charges being brought was due to the “active and ongoing investigations involving our victim,” the sheriff’s office told SFGATE over email Thursday. “Serious cases like this need to be carefully built over time.”
Before he was fired, Mester was also a band leader at the school, the sheriff’s office said in a statement.
Mester, 65, was born in Michigan, arrest records show. He is currently incarcerated at the sheriff’s detention center in Modesto and is due in court Thursday. His bail is set at $650,000.
via: SF Gate
