By Gina Tabonares
Variety News Staff

THE Superior Court of Guam dropped the criminal sexual conduct charges filed against a substitute teacher at Southern High School after determining that the sexual act with a student was “consensual.”
Judge Arthur Barcinas ruled that the evidence presented to the grand jury against Daniel Ignacio Espinosa was insufficient to constitute reasonable cause to believe that the crime of second-degree criminal sexual conduct was committed.
Espinosa was charged with two counts of second-degree criminal sexual conduct after police officers caught him with a 15-year-old student in a vehicle parked at Apaka Point in the early morning of Dec. 3, 2005.
During the arrest, Espinosa and the student admitted that they met at Southern High School where Espinosa is employed and the minor is a student.
On the evening of Dec. 2, 2005, Espinosa and the student spoke on the telephone and the minor asked the teacher to pick her up from her home. They drove to Apaka Point and engaged in sexual contact.
Espinosa, through his lawyer Assistant Public Defender Tricia R.S. Ada, filed a motion to dismiss in July 2006 arguing that the Office of the Attorney General failed to present evidence indicating that the defendant used coercion or his position as a teacher when he engaged in sexual contact with the minor.
Judge Barcinas ruled that that court finds no evidence tending to provide reasonable cause to believe that Espinosa used coercion, deception, a display of authority or intimidation to convince the minor to engage in sexual contact with him.
On the contrary, the court finds that the evidence tends to demonstrate that the defendant lawfully initiated contact with the student.
It was also established that the defendant and the student had known each other for a while and that they had started dating a week prior to the arrest.