Ex-Assistant Principal Must Face Sex Charges

An ex-Garden Grove assistant high school principal must stand trial for allegedly having sex with a minor who later bore him two children, and lewd touching of a 14-year-old student, a judge ruled Friday.

Miguel Vivanco, 42, is scheduled to enter a plea in Superior Court on Oct. 22 to four felony charges.

Vivanco was an administrator at Rancho Alamitos High School until March 13, when the statutory rape allegations arose. He later resigned.

He was charged with two counts of having unlawful sexual intercourse in April 1996 with a 17-year-old student.

Vivanco also is charged with inappropriate sexual behavior with a 14-year-old student in December 1997, and in March, on the school campus.

Municipal Judge Corey Cramin found sufficient evidence to order trial on all four counts.

The older student, now 20, testified during Friday’s preliminary hearing that her encounters with Vivanco occurred in “Mexico, in ’96.”

Garden Grove Police Investigator Mark Hutchinson said the girl initially told police she and Vivanco had sex three times in his Porsche in Seal Beach, and that it happened over spring break that year.

In the case involving the second student, police testified the two incidents involving the 14-year-old were on school grounds.

Outside the courtroom, defense attorney David Zimmerman said Vivanco denies groping the 14-year-old.

He said his client cannot be prosecuted for what happened with the older student. If the sex “took place outside the continental boundaries of the United States, this court has no jurisdiction to act,” he said.

Vivanco, who is free on his own recognizance, lives in Costa Mesa with his wife--who is one of his former students--and their three children.