Teacher Acquitted of Cruelty to Children

First-grade teacher Jean Wagner was acquitted Tuesday of all charges that she struck her students with rulers and pointer sticks.

Wagner, 53, who had taught first grade at Humphreys Avenue School in East Los Angeles for 24 years, cried when the verdict was announced. The jury in East Los Angeles Municipal Court had deliberated fewer than three hours on nine misdemeanor counts of cruelty to a child.

“She was very happy to know she had been vindicated,” said her attorney, Richard Schwab. Wagner had testified that she merely “tapped” children to keep them “on task.”

The verdict disappointed some parents, who pledged to continue to fight to keep Wagner out of the classroom.

“I was expecting that the judicial system would just find her guilty,” said Lina Duque, 35, a parent, whose complaint against Wagner to the Sheriff’s Department started the criminal proceedings.

“This was very, very wrong. Everybody’s upset about it. . . . We’re going to the school district about this. We don’t want her in this school or in any school. We don’t want any more students to be hurt by her.”

Wagner still faces possible disciplinary hearings by the Los Angeles Board of Education, a school district spokesman said.

Wagner was transferred to a desk job when the charges were filed in March. Schwab said he believes Wagner will request a transfer to another school this fall.

In an unusual action Tuesday afternoon, two jurors called The Times after the verdict to say they felt they were deprived of information they believed they needed to determine Wagner’s guilt or innocence because of judicial rulings that disallowed certain testimony.

Kellyjean Chun, the assistant district attorney who prosecuted the case, said seven jurors had approached her after the trial to ask why there had been no testimony of adults to corroborate the children’s stories.

She said she explained to them that the judge, Commissioner Bernard F. Kemper, had disallowed as hearsay testimony by parents as to symptoms their children had suffered and testimony by a principal who had allegedly seen a welt on one girl’s arm. He also disallowed as irrelevant testimony that corporal punishment is prohibited by the school district.

“Many of us felt justice was not served in this case,” said juror Ed Gardner, a computer analyst. “We had to assume there was no other evidence because it wasn’t presented to us.”

However, Schwab said that had such evidence been allowed, the jury could also have heard other testimony that showed his client had been named teacher of the year and had won many service awards.