The Cupertino Courier Photograph by Skye Dunlap Jeff Lamson is cross-examined by prosecutor Debbie Baldocchi at the sentencing hearing last Wednesday. Accountability Judge tells the community and Jeff Lamson, 'You just don't get it' By Justin Berton 'There is so much I want to share with you. Both physically and mentally. I love rubbing your legs and holding you tight. When you snuggle next to me it is the best. No where I would rather be. I am scared. I know 90 percent of America would think I am a pig. A weird sex pervert. I hope when you are 30 you don't feel we were wrong to get into this relationship. This is why I don't want you to get cocky and remain discrete [sic].' --Jeff Lamson in a letter to Jane Doe No. 2 This is what Debbie Baldocchi, deputy district attorney, asked Jeff Lamson at his Jan. 27 sentencing: "When you wrote that 'I know 90 percent of America would think I am a pig. A weird sex pervert.' What did you mean by that?" Baldocchi was referring to a letter written by Lamson to his then 14-year-old student, Jane Doe No. 2. Lamson, age 32 at the time, wrote, "There is so much I want to share with you. Both physically and mentally. I love rubbing your legs and holding you tight. When you snuggle next to me it is the best. No where I would rather be. I am scared. I know 90 percent of America would think I am a pig. A weird sex pervert. I hope when you are 30 you don't feel we were wrong to get into this relationship. This is why I don't want you to get cocky and remain discrete [sic]." This is how Jeff Lamson responded to Baldocchi's question: "I've lived it. I've lived what I wrote in that letter. Having it on the front page of the Mercury News ... having it hit the room while I was having a cup of coffee with my co-workers." Though he was tearing--his voice in a near shout and his face contorted--he had, in the view of the prosecutor, missed the point of the question. Baldocchi rephrased. "What do you think the impact was on their lives?" she asked, referring to Lamson's victims. With little hesitancy, Lamson said, "I could never walk in their shoes." Baldocchi continued, "What does accountability mean?" Lamson replied, "That's a broad question." She asked the question again, slightly altering the words. After working through what "accountability" means in a school, in a society, in one's personal conduct, Lamson concluded, "Right now, I'm being accountable." "But Mr. Lamson," Baldocchi said with surprise, "isn't that only because you were caught?" There was a long pause, and Lamson's face grew pained as he took time to weigh the consequences of his answer. "Yes," he said. "I have no more questions, Your Honor," Baldocchi replied. Photograph by Skye Dunlap 'My conduct has shattered my life, my wife's life, my parents' life, my brother's life and my sister's life,' Lamson said at the hearing. This is what Jeff Lamson admitted doing while a math teacher and football coach at Cupertino's Homestead High School: He admitted to having an ongoing sexual relationship with a 16-year-old student in 1991, known in court documents as Jane Doe No. 1. He also admitted to having a sexual relationship--but not actual intercourse--with a 14-year-old girl, Jane Doe No. 2, six years later in 1997. In all, through a no contest plea in October, Lamson pleaded guilty to 12 felony sex offenses, involving the 16-year old, one misdemeanor child molestation offense, with the 14-year-old, and one witness-tampering offense. Lamson faced a maximum sentence of five years, eight months in state prison. He received three years, four months. This is what Jeff Lamson said of his actions at his sentencing: "My conduct has shattered my life, my wife's life, my parents' life, my brother's and my sister's life." He wept as he spoke. "And I'm truly sorry for that. No matter what you do to me today, I will be a registered sex offender. My son will ask, 'Hey, Dad, why can't you coach our T-Ball team? Or, 'How come those people won't come over to our house?' " He turned to the judge: "Whatever sentence you bring upon me today, I have already sentenced myself. The shame, the humiliation, the embarrassment that I've caused my family, my son, my friends that are here, the community I work in." Again, he cried as he spoke. He asked the judge to honor his request for work furlough and 30 hours per week of community service, adding that he would put in as many volunteer hours as she demanded. More than once, he said, "I want the opportunity to pay society back for the crime I've committed." This is what Jane Doe No. 1, now 24, said in a letter to the court at Jeff Lamson's sentencing: "It makes me sick that people look up to him, look up to a molester. There is something wrong with that." The letter continued, "To the Homestead teachers and others in the education community, there is something so wrong about a teacher supporting another teacher who molests their students... it should make parents afraid to send [their children] to that school." In the wake of Lamson's October plea, friends, family and clergy close to Lamson sent more than 100 letters to Cordell, supporting Lamson. Though Lamson had admitted to molesting two students at his school, community educators such as former Cupertino Union School District superintendent Dr. Yvette del Prado and current assistant superintendent John Erkman sent letters in support. Current Homestead teachers Dorothy Mansfield, Ken Flanagan and Ted Locicero did as well. One letter came from Liz Williams, a Homestead English teacher for the past four years, a former PTA president and a parent of three. Williams was the first witness to speak on Lamson's behalf. "He was the Pied Piper of the campus," Williams testified. "He was young and fun and had a rapport with girls and guys. People just wanted to be with him." She, like many others, said they were there to support a friend in a time of need. When Baldocchi read the letter Lamson wrote to his 14-year-old student, she asked Williams if his behavior was acceptable. "No," Williams said. "Does it change your view of Mr. Lamson?" Baldocchi asked. "No," Williams replied. Baldocchi asked each of the eight witnesses that spoke on behalf of Lamson if the letter had changed their view of their friend. Each witness answered "no." This is what Lisa Lamson, Jeff's wife, said on behalf of her husband at his sentencing: "I see the goodness in Jeff that far outweighs the bad. I want my family together." The Lamsons have been married four years and have a 2-year-old son. Lisa told the judge if Jeff were to go to jail, the court would be breaking up a young family. Regardless of the sentence, Lisa said, "We will be punished every day for what my husband has done." She said she wakes up next to Jeff Lamson every morning and knows his hopes and dreams. "He is a good man," she said. Photograph by Skye Dunlap This is what Jane Doe No. 2 said at the sentencing: "It's hard for me to continue at a school where teachers and friends are supporting a man who violated me." With a careful, mature spacing of her words, she said, "I did nothing wrong." Jane Doe No. 2 said students at Homestead often call her names and accuse her of doing things she did not do. She said when she learned of Lamson's relationship with Jane Doe No. 1--the gifts, the sodas, the letters--it all sounded too familiar. "I thought at the time I was special." She spoke to the court eloquently and assuredly, and did not use notes or a prepared statement. "I was betrayed by a person who was supposed to be a mentor to me," she said. "A person who was supposed to guide me down the road of life." "He took my innocence," she said. This is what Charles Smith, Lamson's attorney, said in his closing remarks at the sentencing: "If this was a close call, you have to tip the balance in our favor because of Danny Root." Danny Root is a senior at Homestead High School. He is autistic and mildly retarded and has obsessive compulsive disorder. Danny's mother, Sheryl, told the court of the impact Lamson had on her son's life. "God had answered 14 years of my prayers," she said. Until meeting Lamson, Danny had spent his school years on the outside looking in. His behavior was erratic and his temper tantrums were uncontrollable. His advisors suggested school sports as a remedy and placed him on the Homestead football team. Under Lamson's instruction, the other team members warmly accepted Danny. Danny's self-esteem soared, and his behavior settled. Sheryl Root called Jeff Lamson Danny's "angel from heaven." As Mrs. Root spoke of her son's new outlook on life, Pat Lamson, Jeff's mother, buried her face in her hands. She clasped a neatly folded white handkerchief in her right hand. Bill Lamson, Jeff's father, used his index finger to brush away the tears welling at the base of his bifocals. Smith concluded his comments by saying his client could do more for society if he were able to help others, like Danny Root. "Don't throw him on the junk heap of society in prison," Smith argued. "He doesn't belong there." This is what Debbie Baldocchi said in her closing arguments at the sentencing: "Mr. Lamson is the most dangerous type of sexual offender there is." He can deceive and convince well-educated people that he has done nothing wrong, she said. She pointed to the eight witnesses who all answered "no" when she asked if their opinion of Lamson had changed after she read his letter. She referenced a psychological evaluation of Lamson solicited by the defense team. Dr. James R. Missett concluded Lamson suffered from adult anti-social conduct. Missett wrote that Lamson appears to be "overly dependent on others for signs of attention, affection, and approval. In particular, he seems to be overly dependent on receiving such signs of attention and affection and approval from younger women who are, in turn, involved in a dependent relationship with him...[which] appears to have been such as to obscure the clarity of his judgment and have him ignore the possible consequences for himself, his career, his family and the girl in pursuing his interest." The doctor also did not rule out the possibility that Lamson would offend again and advised that he "refrain from visiting any school playgrounds, school yards, swimming pools or other areas where children or youngsters commonly congregate." Baldocchi asked the judge not to be fooled by the Jeff Lamson his supporters spoke of and urged her, rather, to look at what he truly is. "And what he is," Baldocchi said, "is a child molester." Photograph by Skye Dunlap Judge LaDoris Cordell told Lamson: 'You have minimized your conduct by glossing over what you did.' One witness for the defense described Lamson as the 'Pied Piper' of the Homestead campus. This is what Judge LaDoris Cordell said at the sentencing: "Mr. Lamson, you have minimized your conduct by glossing over what you did." She was appalled that Lamson would, in a court document--a letter written to her--refer to his victims by their real names. She also condemned him for violating a court order not to contact his victims, by paging Jane Doe No. 2 while out on bail. She was unimpressed that Lamson complained of being ostracized by society and that he was only able to find "demeaning" manual labor jobs. Cordell said, "Quite frankly, Mr. Lamson, your suffering is not my concern today." She also noted that she was "struck by the breadth of support he and his family have in this community," but that she would not consider the letters in her decision. The judge also expressed disgust that Lamson's 2-year-old son played a role in his game of deceit. "He used his own child as part of the ruse to lure one of the girls into a relationship through baby-sitting," Cordell said. She characterized Lamson's remorse as "somewhat superficial." "I don't think that you get it, Mr. Lamson," the judge said, adding later, "You may never fully get it." After Cordell sentenced Lamson to three years, four months in state prison, she stated, "I want this to ring out loud and clear: Our teachers had better stick to the jobs of educators or face dire consequences." Before she left the bench, the judge took aim at the Homestead student body which continues to tease Jane Doe No. 2, and those who put their reputations on the line to stand behind Lamson. "Sadly, it is those students and their supporters that just don't get it, either." As three bailiffs moved in toward Lamson, Jane Doe No. 2 sat up straight and proud in her chair, her broad shoulders parallel to the ground. Lamson stood up and motioned toward his family. His wife, Lisa, blew him a kiss. Surrounded by bailiffs, Lamson passed by Jane Doe No. 2's front row seat, but he did not look at her. As he disappeared through a door behind the jury box, the girl collapsed and, for the first time that day, cried. [ Back to Contents Page | Cupertino Courier Home Page | Archives ] This article appeared in the Cupertino Courier, February 3, 1999. ©1999 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved.