San Diego
After nearly three days of deliberations, a jury Tuesday acquitted a special education teacher of three sex charges involving a young woman with Down’s syndrome.
The San Diego Superior Court panel deadlocked on five other sex counts in the case against Christian Tuffli, 56, of San Diego.
Tuffli was arrested in May, 1989, and charged with raping an 18-year-old student at the Mission Beach School, where he has taught for 20 years.
A mistrial was declared Tuesday on the five remaining charges by Judge J. Perry Langford, who ordered Tuffli to return to court Monday for the setting of a date for a possible retrial.
The three counts Tuffli was acquitted of were rape, oral copulation and penetration with a foreign object with an incompetent person.
The jurors deadlocked 8 to 4 for conviction on two sex counts, and 2 to 10 for acquittal on the other three charges.
Tuffli remains free on a $50,000 bond.
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