More defense witnesses support teacher in molestation trail

RANCHO CUCAMONGA -- In the second day of defense testimony today in a former elementary school teacher's molestation trial, colleagues, former students and their parents took the witness stand and said they never saw James Andrew Megaw sexually abuse students.

"I feel he's innocent," testified Karen Tanner, one of Megaw's former colleagues at Valencia Elementary School in Upland.

Megaw, 43, is charged with four felonies for allegedly touching students' genitals in his class of second- and third-graders.

Megaw's defense team contends one of the alleged victims lied about the abuse, while other children are mistaken.

Most of the alleged victims were students in Megaw's 2008-2009 class.

This afternoon in West Valley Superior Court, several people who observed Megaw's class that year testified that they never saw any abuse take place.

Renee Noble said she taught in the classroom next to Megaw's, and the two classrooms were connected by an adjoining door.

"Those doors can't be locked," Noble testified. "They don't have locks on them."

Noble testified that she often visited Megaw's class, and she never knocked or asked permission before entering.

She said she never saw Megaw, of Rancho Cucamonga, have inappropriate contact with students.

Under cross-examination by Deputy District Attorney Jason Anderson, Noble said she typically spent less than one percent of the school day in Megaw's classroom.

Besides Noble and Tanner -- whose son was in Megaw's class five years ago -- another teacher and class volunteer also said they never saw Megaw abuse students.

Tanner's son, an eighth grade student at Pioneer Junior High School, testified that he never say Megaw abuse students.

The final defense witness today was a girl who was in Megaw's 2008-2009 class. The girl testified about an episode involving one of Megaw's alleged victims that's central in Megaw's defense.

The girl said she saw a boy in her class pass a note to his friend. A substitute teacher found the note, and the principal was called to the class as if the boys were in trouble.

That night, the boy who passed the note told his parents Megaw had been molesting him since the first week of the school year.

Megaw's defense attorneys allege the boy concocted the abuse allegation to avoid punishment for the note, which contained curse words.

Testimony in Megaw's trial is set to continue Thursday morning.