Former Fremont Schoolteacher Gets 16 Years In Prison For Sexually Assaulting 2nd-Grader
OAKLAND (CBS SF) -- A former Fremont schoolteacher was sentenced Friday to 16 years in state prison for sexually assaulting a second-grader in his classroom in the late 1990s.
Michael Schoop, 65, of Pleasanton, was charged two years ago with four counts of sodomy of a person under the age of 14 but on Feb. 19, on the third day of his trial, he pleaded no contest to two counts of sodomy in a plea agreement with prosecutors.
The other two counts against Schoop were dismissed Friday.
Authorities said the incidents for which Schoop was charged occurred in a side room of a portable classroom at the Mission Valley Elementary School in Fremont, where Schoop taught for 25 years and once was named a distinguished teacher.
The victim's parents attended Schoop's sentencing Friday but did not speak.
Prosecutor Chris Infante said the victim, who is now in his early 20s, didn't attend the sentencing "because he didn't want to see Mr. Schoop again."
Infante said, "It's been a long struggle" for the victim to deal with the incidents but said, "he's doing much better now."
Alameda County Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Horner said Schoop deserved a long sentence because his crimes were "egregious and callous" and the victim was "particularly vulnerable" since he had been sent to Schoop's classroom for additional help.
Horner said Schoop was "in a position of leadership over the victim" and "took advantage of a position of trust."
In addition, Horner said Schoop poses "a serious danger to society" and the manner of his crimes "involved planning, sophistication and professionalism."
In 2002, Schoop pleaded guilty in Alameda County Superior Court to one felony count of possessing child pornography and was placed on five years' probation and required to register as a sex offender.
In a related case in federal court, Schoop was sentenced in 2003 to one year in federal prison.
The state and federal cases began when a 45-year-old man told Oakland police that Schoop had molested him for several years, starting in 1967, when the man was about 12 years old.
In those cases, Schoop originally was charged with four counts of lewd conduct with a child under 14 and one count of forced oral copulation with a minor but those charges were later dropped after the alleged victim recanted his allegations against him.
The only charge that remained against Schoop in that case was the child pornography count to which he pleaded guilty.
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