[UPDATED with Judge's Reasoning:] Jason Alan Marian Had Sex With 16-Year-Old Dance Student, Secretly Taped Girls Undressing in His Home

Categories: Crime-iny
UPDATE, JULY 19, 2:49 P.M.: Orange County Superior Court Judge David Thompson revealed why Mission Viejo dance instructor Jason Alan Marian should be retried on some counts related to his case involving unlawful sex with a 16-year-old dance student and secret videotaping several other teen girls undressing in his home.

Veteran defense attorney Gary Pohlson fucked up, overlooking a potential alibi because the lawyer did not fully comprehend computer evidence that could have cleared his client, according to Thompson (who used different phrasing, of course).

The testimony that led to the defense motion that led to Thompson's decision to retry Marian on four felony counts of using a minor for sex acts and one felony count of sexual penetration by foreign object of a minor involved the defendant's use of a computer when the 16-year-old girl was supposedly being sexually assaulted by him.

Deputy District Attorney Tony Ferrentino claimed the girl came to Marian's office at the Ocean Institute in Dana Point (where he also worked) on June 4, 2006, and that he then took her to the beach, fed her alcohol, took sexed up photos of her in a bathing suit and sexually assaulted her.

Marian testified that the girl did come to his office to borrow his beach bag and camera that day, denying they had sexy time together (that day) and claiming someone else shot the photos and plied the girl with alcohol.

A computer expert called by the defense testified that the internal clock on the computer in Marian's office showed he was browsing on the Internet while the girl was on the beach. But the expert later recanted that testimony after conferring with the prosecution's computer expert. Ferrentino also noted that Marian, a computer expert himself with a master's degree, could have turned back the computer clock to create a false alibi for himself.

Nontheless, Thompson found that Pohlson did not focus enough on the possible alibi for his client. Pohlson admitted screwing up and stepped down from the case. Deputy Public Defender Mark Brown took over representing Marian, basing his additional evidence motion on Pohlson having been confused by the highly technical testimony.

Meanwhile, Thompson on Monday said Marian perjured himself and "suborned perjury of his wife" when it came to evidence about videotaping 12- to 14-year-old girls undressing in his bathroom. Brown obviously thought better than to try to get a new trial on those counts after hearing that.

Courtesy of Orange County Sheriff's Department
Jason Alan Marian can dance with fellow inmates.
UPDATE, JULY 19, 1:10 P.M.: Mission Viejo dance instructor Jason Alan Marian, 32, was sentenced today to two years and eight months in state prison for having unlawful sex with a 16-year-old dance student and secretly videotaping several other teen girls after Slip 'N Slide at a nearby park and a pool party at his home as they changed in the bathroom.

The Orange County District Attorney's office (OCDA) had sought a sentence of seven years and eight months in the can.

The reduced time came as a result of the judge ruling yesterday that Marian must be retried on four felony counts of using a minor for sex acts and one felony count of sexual penetration by foreign object of a minor.

The trial jury convicted Marian on April 30, 2010, of those counts and two felony counts of oral copulation of a minor, one felony count of possession and control of child pornography and one misdemeanor count of secretly filming another with the intent to arouse.

The counts Marian received sentence on today were based on his engaging in unlawful oral sex and digital penetration in his home with a 16-year-old girl who was a student at Mission Viejo Dance and Performing Arts Center where he worked (although she was not one of his students).

Following a defense motion claiming the discovery of additional evidence, the judge ordered retrial on counts based on accusations that Marian invited the 16-year-old to the beach, gave her alcohol, took provocative photographs of her in her bathing suit and digitally penetrated her there.

For Didi, who a year ago commented on this very blog, "Jason was working all day but the judge wouldn't allow evidence in court to prove it. Don't believe everything you read, folks," we direct you to the words of one of Marian's victims and her mother, delivered to the judge before he passed sentence today (via an OCDA conviction statement):

During the sentencing today, one of the victims who was unknowingly videotaped by Marian in his bathroom gave a victim impact statement to the court and said, "As a 7th grader at 13 years old, I had discovered firsthand what betrayal really was. For the past four years this has always been in the back of my mind. The impact of all that has gone on is indescribable. I have been waiting for this to finally be over and now that it is, I feel like a weight has been lifted off my shoulders."

The mother of this victim also addressed the court and said of the defendant, "No one saw it coming. You are the most dangerous of predators because you so carefully manipulated your way into the dance studio and into the families of the victims pretending to be something that you were not. You painted a masterful picture of yourself--someone who was married, someone who befriended many of the families, and someone who had just become a father. On the outside you looked safe.  On the inside, you are a sick man." 

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