El Toro Teacher Acquitted on 7 Counts of Molestation

An El Toro elementary school teacher was acquitted Thursday on seven misdemeanor counts of molesting fourth- and fifth-grade girls in his classroom.

Keith Milne, a 38-year-old computer science teacher who has taught at Olivewood Elementary School for 17 years, has been suspended from his job since his arrest in October of 1987.

“I fully expected to be found innocent,” Milne said. “I guess it’s a relief to have the judicial system be able to verify the facts and find out the truth. It’s been a long ordeal, six months since it started.”

Jurors deadlocked 11 to 1 in favor of acquittal on two other misdemeanor counts. South Municipal Court Judge Blair T. Barnette asked lawyers in the case to return to court April 29, when those two counts are expected to be dismissed.

“You can imagine what this case has done to Mr. Milne’s career,” said his attorney, Paul J. Wallin. “It was crazy for prosecutors to even bring this case to court.”

Wallin described Milne as a happily married man with two children who “has been extremely devoted to that school.”

Milne, who has been on paid leave during the trial, said he was “taking one step at a time” in thinking about the future.

Eight girls testified at Milne’s trial that he touched them in the breast area or in ways that made them feel uncomfortable.

The jurors deliberated 3 1/2 days and said later that much of that time was spent arguing with a woman juror who refused to go along with an acquittal on two counts. Jurors who voted for acquittal on all the counts told the lawyers in the case afterwards that they did not think prosecutors had proven that Milne had a “sexual motivation,” which the law requires for misdemeanor child molestation convictions.

Milne, who is from Mission Viejo, was arrested Oct. 6, 1987, soon after some of his students attended a seminar at the school on child abuse.

“Those students were simply responding to what they had seen two women demonstrate at the program,” Wallin said.

Wallin called Milne’s arrest “an outrage.”

“There were paid adult aides and volunteer mothers in the classroom when these molestations were supposed to have taken place,” Wallin said. “They certainly didn’t see anything happen.”

Wallin also said that more than half the teachers at Olivewood have called his office to express support for Milne.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Kevin Haskins, however, said the verdict disappointed him and upset the parents of the eight girls who testified.

“But they knew going in that it was going to be a very difficult case,” he said.

Haskins discounted Wallin’s contention that Milne never should have been charged.

“If there is nothing wrong with touching a fifth-grade girl on her breasts, then I suppose Mr. Milne is innocent,” Haskins said. “I knew it would be difficult to prove a sexual motivation, but I felt an obligation to put this case on.”

Haskins said he also believes that Wallin exaggerated the amount of support Milne has received from teachers and parents at the school.

A spokeswoman for Olivewood said school officials refuse to comment on the Milne case. Officials at the Saddleback Valley Unified School District did not return repeated telephone calls.

If convicted on all the counts, Milne could have received a five-year prison sentence.