CALIFORNIA
Mercury News
By Malaika Fraley
mfraley@bayareanewsgroup.com
POSTED: 10/27/2015
HAYWARD — Branded a child molester, the former Catholic school employee spent two years in jail, ripped away from her son when he was just 3. But on Tuesday, a jury set the woman free, acquitting her of molestation charges that could have sent her to prison for nearly two decades.
Mia Cummings, 31, of Oakland “wept tears of relief and gratitude” in Alameda County Judge Kevin Murphy’s Hayward courtroom as a clerk read consecutive not guilty verdicts, said her attorney David Cohen, who defended Cummings with his Bay Area Criminal Lawyers associate Cherie Wallace.
Cummings was expected to be released from Santa Rita Jail late Tuesday and reunited with her 5-year-old son and her longtime boyfriend.
“This thing ended her career. It ended her life,” taking her away from her family and her young son, Cohen said.
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