Teacher's aid Daniel Alcazar raped/sodomized 15yo student

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Daniel Alcazar image from link (reg req'd)

Teacher's aide accused of rape

GRESHAM -- A teacher's aide at the Academy of Alternatives School in Gresham, who was convicted of murder at age 16, was arrested last week in the rape and sodomy of a 15-year-old student.

Sgt. Teddi Lofton, a spokeswoman for the Gresham Police Department, said 27-year-old Daniel Alcazar of Southeast Portland, was arrested May 18.

Alcazar is being held without bail in the Justice Center Jail for violating the terms of his probation while a grand jury considers charges of third-degree r
ape and third-degree sodomy against him, Lofton said.

If charged and convicted, Alcazar faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison, and a $125,000 fine for each count, both class C felonies.

The alleged incident involving the 15-year-old girl occurred between Jan. 15 and Feb. 15. Lofton said police do not believe there are any other potential victims.

"This was an isolated incident," she said.

Jay Scalise, director of the Academy of Alternatives, found out about the incident at a regular meeting with the student, parents and staff. During the meeting, Scalise said he learned that the sexual contact was consensual.

Scalise immediately called the Department of Human Services, the police, took Alcazar's keys and threw him out of the building.

"I am horrified. It is just devastating," said Scalise. "We all feel violated. It is a betrayal of the student, the population here, this entire school of people who trusted him."

Scalise's rules at the school state that no student
should be alone with a teacher at any time.

The school serves special education students as well as students with academic and social challenges and those dealing with drug, alcohol and gang problems. It is located at 18201 Southeast Stark Street.

Miguel Tellez, a program manager at Morrison Child and Family Services, is one of the leaders of the school's drug, alcohol and gang intervention group. He began mentoring Alcazar in November, at the request of administrators from the Going Home Program, a federally funded initiative that helps gang-affiliated and violent offenders adjust upon their return to society.

Tellez, along with officials from the Going Home program recommended Alcazar for a teaching assistant position at the alternative school.

"Of course, I wish hadn't let him come here now," Scalise said. "But I never saw an indication that this wasn't a good thing."

Alcazar was sentenced to 12 years in prison in July 1995 for the August 1994 killing of 42-year-old Joan Ann Bor
isch. Borisch was shot in the chest and killed during a burglary at her Southeast Portland home.

Facing aggravated murder charges, Alcazar and then-16-year-old Somphalavan Sophanthavong both implicated then-18-year-old Mixay Xay Dethsayongkham as having shot Borisch. Alcazar and Sophanthavong were convicted of murder and sentenced to 12 years in prison.

According to court records, Dethsayongkham pleaded guilty to aggravated murder in 1996 and was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Perrin Damon, spokeswoman for Oregon State Department of Corrections, said Alcazar was in prison from August 1995 through October 2005.

The Academy of Alternatives, with 120 students, draws from throughout east Multnomah County including the David Douglas, Gresham-Barlow and Reynolds school districts.

Each year, the districts contract with the school to send a certain number of students there. The contracts keep the school open. With districts launching their own investigations as
a result of Alcazar's arrest, the school's future is uncertain.

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Gresham teachers' aide accused of rape

(with mugshot of Daniel Alcazar accused of raping a 15-year-old female student.)