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OC Authorities Seek Ex-Vocal Teacher Who Missed Start of Trial Associated Press, carried in Union-Tribune [Santa Ana CA] March 13, 2007 http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/state/20070313-2110-ca-choir-molest.html A $500,000 warrant has been issued for a former vocal teacher with the All-American Boys Chorus who failed to show up for the start of his trial on child molestation charges, prosecutors said Tuesday. Roger Alan Giese, 31, of Irvine, was supposed to be in court Monday for his trial on six felony counts involving the alleged molestation of a boy he met in the chorus group. If convicted, Giese faces a maximum sentence of 23 years in prison. "Mr. Giese should turn himself in as soon as possible," Deputy District Attorney Kal Kaliban said in a statement. Giese had been free on $200,000 bail. An after-hours phone call to his attorney was not immediately returned. Prosecutors alleged the molestation occurred from May 1998, when the boy was 13 years old, to May 2002. The two met through the chorus and Giese had been giving the boy private voice lessons for seven years, authorities said. Giese, who worked for the chorus company for eight years, was arrested in September 2002 and resigned from his part-time job a few days later. He also resigned from his position at an Orange County advertising and public relations firm. The All-American Boys Chorus is comprised of 130 boys and is known as one of the nation's premier performance ensembles with concerts held around the world. Giese had been a member of the chorus when he was a boy. He is the second person associated with the chorus to face such accusations. The Rev. Richard Coughlin, a former Catholic priest, was dismissed in 1992 after five men came forward alleging they were molested during the time they sang with the chorus in the 1970s and 1980s. Those lawsuits were settled. The choir, which was started by a parish priest as a youth project, is no longer affiliated with any religious organization. |
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