Former teacher convicted
A jury Monday found a former Clark County elementary school teacher guilty of sexually abusing three of his one-time students.
Six teenagers testified last week in District Judge Jackie Glass' courtroom that their teacher at Kesterson Elementary School, Mark Zana, touched them inappropriately or urged them to stick their hands in his pockets to get candy.
The jury acquitted Zana of charges involving three of the girls.
"I want to thank the victims that testified at trial and all of the young children that provided statements to police to assist in the investigation," prosecutor Tom Carroll said after the verdict.
Zana was found guilty of open and gross lewdness with a minor in one incident involving a fifth-grader, who testified Zana urged her to reach into his pockets to get candy.
The jurors also found him guilty of three felony counts of lewdness with a minor. The charges stem from separate incidents during which Zana put his hand down the shirts of two former students and touched their breasts.
Zana was found guilty of six felony counts of possession of child pornography, which police found on his personal computers when they executed a search warrant at his home. He was acquitted of six other similar counts.
Zana, who was out on bail, was handcuffed and taken into custody after the verdict.
He faces three potential life sentences for the lewdness with a minor counts, but lesser punishments are an option.
The open and gross lewdness conviction, a gross misdemeanor, carries up to a year in jail. He also faces one to six years for each possession of child pornography count.
His family and friends were present for the trial and verdict but declined to comment. Defense attorney Tom Pitaro did not return a call from the Review-Journal seeking comment.
In his closing argument Friday, Pitaro said his client was the victim of a vicious rumor cycle tantamount to the Salem witch trials.
"When you're that age (a teenager), nothing is better than a rumor," Pitaro said.
He called an expert witness to the stand who testified it is impossible to determine the ages of females depicted in the pornography police found on Zana's computer.
Pitaro emphasized that every instance of alleged inappropriate touching occurred when other students were around, yet there were no corroborating witnesses other than the alleged victims who testified at the trial.
Zana was well-liked even by those who accused him, prosecutors and Pitaro agreed.
"Everybody liked Mr. Zana," one of Zana's victims testified last week.
The 13-year-old discussed what her fifth-grade teacher did to her after school one day during the 2003-04 school year.
She said Zana put his hand on her breast area, held it there for about 15 seconds and walked away. A boy in the classroom with them never noticed, she said.
She said Zana repeated the conduct later in the year as she and other students sat close to Zana during a reading group.
But that time she put her hand over her chest to stop his hand from going further under her shirt and camisole.
Another boy saw the incident, she said, but quickly looked away.
The jury found Zana guilty of two counts of lewdness with a minor in connection with those incidents.
The girl moved to Colorado after fifth grade and did not speak of the incident for 13 months before she went to police, who in the fall of 2005 launched an investigation into Zana.
He was placed on administrative leave after his arrest and is no longer employed with the Clark County School District.
A 16-year-old who testified said she would reach into Zana's pocket to get candy and saw other girls in class do that too.
After a while, she said, "I noticed it was wrong ... Because you're reaching down someone's pants to get candy."
The open and gross lewdness guilty verdict stemmed from that incident.
Prosecutors Linda Lewis and Carroll said Zana has a history of molesting girls that dates to 1998, including a case in Pennsylvania in which the records were sealed.
"There is no reason why an adult male would have his hands on a girl's chest or a girl's thigh except for sexual gratification," Lewis said.
His status in the Henderson community as an excellent and respected teacher is why it took so long for the allegations to come out and perhaps why few criticized Zana's constant touching of girls but never boys, Lewis said.
"Some rumors are true," Carroll said. "The rumors in this case were absolutely true."
