Catholic school teacher indicted in sexual assault case

By Jasmine Stole
Pacific Daily News
September 20, 2017

http://www.guampdn.com/story/news/2017/09/20/catholic-school-teacher-indicted-sexual-assault-case/684059001/

Peregrine Corpuz San Nicolas

A Superior Court of Guam grand jury this week handed up a true bill, indicting a Bishop Baumgartner Memorial Catholic School physical education teacher on charges of criminal sexual conduct and child abuse.

The indictment was filed Monday.

Peregrine Corpuz San Nicolas, 53, is accused of sexually assaulting a 10-year-old female student.

The girl told police that, between January and March this year, after her classmates were allowed to leave, San Nicolas asked her to stay back, walked with her and put his hand on her breast area, court documents state.

She said San Nicolas never touched her under her shirt, according a court complaint.

She also told police the last incident happened last month, documents state.

A classmate noticed she was acting differently in P.E. class, and asked if San Nicolas was abusing her or did something sexual, documents states. The girl "cried and confided in her two classmates," according to the complaint.  

San Nicolas told police that he called the student after class and he put his right arm around her shoulder while talking to her, court documents state. He said he might have unintentionally moved his right hand toward her chest because they were walking and it caused him to lose balance, documents state. 

San Nicolas also reportedly told officers he may have unintentionally patted her chest while patting her shoulder.

He said he called her back after class to talk about her participation and a student who was bothering her, according to the complaint.

San Nicolas faces two counts of second-degree criminal sexual conduct as a first-degree felony, one count of child abuse as a misdemeanor and two counts of harassment as a petty misdemeanor. 

After his arrest on Aug. 30, the school placed San Nicolas on administrative leave. Court documents state he worked at the school for 12 years.