OAKLAND — A highschool psychology and economics instructor has been arrested and charged with molesting a then-14-year-old lady all through her freshman yr, in 2004, an alleged crime that authorities say was solely found final yr, courtroom data present.
Jeremy Craig Taylor, 46, was charged with committing a lewd act upon a baby 14 years or youthful, together with enhancements alleging “substantial sexual contact,” in addition to deciding on a weak sufferer and being ready of belief. Taylor has pleaded not responsible and is out on $50,000 bail, in response to prosecutors.
Taylor labored on the Oakland College of the Arts — a nonprofit constitution college — as a math instructor on the time, and the sufferer was his scholar, police say.
Although the allegations solely not too long ago surfaced, Taylor was admonished in Might for “counseling” women in non-public conferences inside a basement classroom. An administrator famous on the time that it appeared odd Taylor had a number of college students’ numbers on his private cellphone, in response to police. Nonetheless, Taylor remained employed on the college and nonetheless labored there in October 2021, when police knowledgeable its govt director of the legal investigation.
The varsity’s director didn't instantly return an electronic mail searching for remark and inquiring about his present employment standing. The varsity’s web site doesn’t checklist him within the listing of present school. Public data say Taylor turned himself in to Berkeley police on Might 27, apparently after studying he had an arrest warrant. He was charged July 11, courtroom data present.
Prosecutors allege that Taylor molested the sufferer on an ongoing foundation from September 2004 to September 2005, when Taylor was 29-30 years previous. Police didn’t begin investigating him till final yr, when the alleged sufferer confided in a buddy what had occurred, and he or she referred to as the Oakland police division.
In an interview with investigators, the alleged sufferer stated she and Taylor “had intercourse roughly 10 occasions, each on college grounds and at Taylor’s condominium,” in response to a police possible trigger assertion filed in courtroom. Authorities additionally say that different former college students of Taylor described him as “creepy” and “deeply disturbing,” saying he would flirt with college students or provide them hugs. One stated she noticed the identify of a scholar written in condensation inside Taylor’s car.
In Might 2004, an administrator advised Taylor to cease counseling college students in non-public conferences. Taylor responded with a memo stating he sought to present college students a protected area to speak about household points, consuming problems, self-harm habits, and the like, in response to police.
This warning was repeated in September 2005, after a scholar emailed Taylor searching for to fulfill with him for lunch and stating she missed him. Two weeks after that, the mom of one other scholar — the identical lady whose identify was allegedly written in condensation on the window of Taylor’s automobile — pulled her out of his math class. When the lady apologized, Taylor allegedly responded that she and him might focus on it however he, “will insist, nonetheless, that or not it's in individual,” adopted by a smiley face emoji The next yr, he emailed the identical lady asking for photos of her to “correctly wallpaper (his) room,” in response to police.
In January 2021 — 9 months earlier than the allegations grew to become identified — the Oakland College of the Arts featured Taylor in a publication that included an interview. It describes him as one of many longest-serving school members on the college, which opened in 2002. Within the interview, he stated it's the solely college the place he ever utilized for a job.
“After I heard there was a brand new public arts college in Oakland (I utilized through the college’s first yr), I might out of the blue think about instructing highschool … The thought of getting collectively a complete college of simply arts college students gave the impression of an amazing concept, and I needed to be part of it,” Taylor stated.