Jurors Find Hayward Catholic School Worker Not Guilty at Child Sex Abuse Trial

By Malaika Fraley
Mercury News
October 27, 2015

http://www.mercurynews.com/crime-courts/ci_29031627/jurors-find-hayward-catholic-school-worker-not-guilty

Branded a child molester, the former Catholic school employee spent two years in jail, ripped away from her son when he was just 3. But on Tuesday, a jury set the woman free, acquitting her of molestation charges that could have sent her to prison for nearly two decades.

Mia Cummings, 31, of Oakland "wept tears of relief and gratitude" in Alameda County Judge Kevin Murphy's Hayward courtroom as a clerk read consecutive not guilty verdicts, said her attorney David Cohen, who defended Cummings with his Bay Area Criminal Lawyers associate Cherie Wallace.

Cummings was expected to be released from Santa Rita Jail late Tuesday and reunited with her 5-year-old son and her longtime boyfriend.

"This thing ended her career. It ended her life," taking her away from her family and her young son, Cohen said.

"I think justice was done here," he said. "We are extremely grateful to the jury for all its hard work and to Judge Murphy for a fair trial. Obviously, the risks were very high."

Cummings had been held since her arrest in 2013 on an $800,000 bond. If convicted, she could have been sentenced to 18 years in prison.

Cummings was a well-regarded after-school program assistant at All Saints Catholic School in Hayward for eight years and had a good work record in 2013 when she was accused of sexually abusing a boy over a two-year period beginning when he was 12.

The boy told officials that Cummings performed oral sex on him on numerous occasions on school grounds and in public spots around Hayward. A preliminary hearing judge in 2014 found there was enough evidence to try Cummings on five counts of lewd and lascivious acts on a child under 14, three counts of oral copulation on a child under 16, and one count each of continuous sexual abuse of a child and contacting a minor for sex.

Cohen said the boy's "story didn't sound right on face and there wasn't enough pieces of evidence to corroborate this crazy story he was telling."

Also, between the time Cummings was arrested and the boy's trial testimony, the boy gave different accounts of what happened, Cohen said. For example, he first reported the abuse started when he was 12, but he later said it started after his 13th birthday.

Some allegations, Cohen said, either didn't seem possible -- such as Cummings allegedly performing a sex act on him in public view by Hayward City Hall -- or could not be corroborated by either school records and witnesses.

"The jury said that the lack of corroboration, coupled with the fact that he himself was unreliable witness, meant that it didn't add up to a criminal conviction," Cohen said.

Alameda County prosecutor Chris Infante declined to comment on specifics of the case but said, "We try our best for the victims. We respect the decision by the jury." Cohen said the prosecution's evidence included phone records that showed the boy made "serial calls" to Cummings, all but two of which went unanswered. There was one text exchange and in it the boy referenced a potential meet-up and she called him "sweetie."

The allegations came to light in 2013, when the boy, then 14, showed up at Cummings' former apartment. The resident at the time was an All Saints teacher who called the boy's parents. Cohen said that when the parents questioned whether the boy had a sexual relationship with Cummings, the boy said yes. They took him to a hospital for STD testing and the hospital, a mandated reporting agency, alerted police to the alleged sexual abuse.

"The prosecution asked, 'Why would this kid make these allegations,' " if they weren't true, Cohen said. "We asked, 'Why would someone with a life, a son, a career risk everything?'

"We don't know what his motivation was but it just didn't work," Cohen said.

According to retired sex crimes prosecutor Dara Cashman, who did not follow the case but was given an overview by this newspaper, the verdict was not surprising considering that the boy gave inconsistent statements and that his allegations could not be corroborated.

"A jury can forgive a 5-year-old for not getting all his facts right, mixing up dates, but they hold an older child to a higher standard," Cashman said.

In such cases, Cashman continued, jurors are less likely to convict without some kind of second element to support the allegations, such as a confession, another victim, or a history of sexual misconduct.

"Jurors tend to not want to believe these things happen," Cashman said. "For them, it's so far out of the realm of experience that they are going to be more skeptical."