California School Administrator Faces 16 Felony Charges in Child Sex Abuse Case Highlighted on Youtube
- Staff Writer
- Feb 04, 2014 08:31 PM EST
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A California high school administrator is facing 16 felonies after a former student posted a video on Youtube accusing her of sexually abusing her when she was 12 years old and attending school where the administrator was a teacher.
Andrea Cardosa was formally arrested on Monday and is expected to be arraigned on Thursday, according to CNN.
The case came to light on Jan. 17 when the former student, going under the name "Jamie X" uploaded a video in which she called the school administrator on the phone and recorded the conversation. The video was released under the title, "A call to my childhood rapist teacher." After uploading the video to Youtube she e-mailed a link to the video to the school's administration. Cardosa is said to have resigned her position immediately following the release of the video.
In the video, a voice purported to be that of Cardosa admitted to having an inappropriate relationship with the woman in the video when she was 12 years old and a student at Chemawa Middle School in Riverside, California.
Cardosa was employed as an assistant high school principal in the Alhambra School District in California at the time the story broke.
On Jan. 23 another woman, now 18 years of age, came forward to say that she too had been molested by the same teacher when she was a student.
"This should have never happened, and I don't wish this upon anybody. My mother was the first victim by convincing my mother that she would do great in my life, and she turned my thinking that, that all I need was her," the woman said according to CNN.
"There was a lot of manipulation in the time. This should (have) never happened if the district would (have) done their job."
The second woman to come forward is now suing the Val Verde Unified School District of negligence in the case, which allegedly occurred during the 2009-10 school year. According to news reports she is also taking action against the Riverside Unified School District for providing a positive reference for the educator which allowed her to gain employment in the new district.
"On January 17, RPD started our initial investigation from the YouTube video. During the investigation during some point a second victim came forward and the detectives are now looking into the second victim's allegations. And at this point it's an ongoing investigation," said Lt. Val Graham of Riverside Police Department in a statement.
If convicted, Cardosa faces the potential of spending the rest of her life in prison. Contrary to what the original Youtube poster thought (according to the conversation in the video), there is no statute of limitations in California for aggravated sexual assault of a child under the age of 14.
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