Charges dropped against preschool teacher Police found discrepancies in evidence
A Palo Alto preschool teacher jailed three weeks ago on child molestation charges is now a free man.
David Carlson was released from jail Wednesday after the Santa Clara County District Attorney's office said all charges will be dropped against the 35-year-old San Jose man. "I knew from day one that he was innocent," said Kenneth Robinson, Carlson's defense attorney. "I am gratified that he's out of jail.
"It's been an ordeal for him," Robinson added. Although Carlson has been offered his job back, "it's too early for him to make any decisions. Emotionally, he's still in shock," his lawyer said.
Carlson worked for nine years at a preschool program for Palo Alto Community Child Care. The program was located on the site of Palo Alto's Barron Park School, but PACCC is not affiliated with the school district.
The Palo Alto Police Department actively pursued an investigation after a 4-year-old child at the preschool was believed to have been sexually molested by Carlson.
But this week, the police investigation hit a snag when some of the physical evidence came back from the lab with results that conflicted with the child's story.
"When we had overwhelmingly probably cause, we acted appropriately. When we discovered we had exculpatory evidence, we also acted appropriately," said Palo Alto Police Chief Pat Dwyer, who learned of the discrepancy this week.
"We did the right thing. But the case is still open and will continue to be open until we analyze all the evidence and investigate all the leads," he said.
"We're not on a witch hunt. This is not a case of someone going out and making the wrong call. We followed normal procedures, but given the current state of evidence, it is appropriate to dismiss charges (against Carlson)," Dwyer said.
Prosecutor James Cahan, a deputy district attorney for Santa Clara County, agreed. He said the arrest and subsequent dismissal were not a case of somebody doing something wrong, but that "everybody did something right."
"I was there yesterday when Carlson took the polygraph test. He passed," Cahan said. The test lasted more than an hour.
Cahan said the next step is to officially dismiss the case at the next court date on Tuesday, Feb. 5.
When Carlson was arrested three weeks ago, both family and friends rallied together in his support and set up a legal defense fund to help defray costs. Carlson's former supervisor at PACCC, Kristi Schonberger, said at the time of Carlson's arrest, "the community is shocked by the allegations against Dave."
Dwyer said he totally supports the actions of his department. "It's never happened before in my career (which spans more than 30 years) when someone was vilified in the press and then the charges were dropped," he said.
When this case is officially closed and every bit of evidence is analyzed, "I would be happy to sit down with Mr. Carlson and explain to him why we acted the way we did. As a preschool teacher, I think he would understand that," Dwyer said.
Dwyer is hoping the community will also understand. "We acted in the community's interest. And when we got conflicting evidence, we acted appropriately," he said
Well then he should have learned from the mistakes of others. The name Richard Jewell comes to mind, again. We should all be careful who we accuse while there is an ongoing active investigation.