No jury in former teacher's sex-abuse trial

The trial of a former West High School teacher accused of having sex with a 16-year-old student was rescheduled Friday, after the trial had been abruptly canceled earlier this week.

Jose Bernardo Fanjul, 46, is charged with five counts of forcible sodomy, a first-degree felony, and five counts of forcible sexual abuse, a second-degree felony, for alleged sexual contact with the girl in 2008.

In a hearing Monday, Fanjul's defense attorneys filed a motion to dismiss the charges, accusing prosecutors of "professional misconduct" that they believed had ruined Fanjul's chances of getting a fair trial.

But Friday, defense attorney Kenneth Brown informed 3rd District Judge Ann Boyden that they were withdrawing that motion. Instead, Fanjul formally waived his rights to a jury trial and asked for a bench trial, so that Boyden could be the fact-finder in the case.

"There was no reason to go forward with that motion now that the trial will be at the bench," Brown said after the hearing.

The motion was originally filed because defense attorneys had said prosecutors deliberately waited until just before Fanjul's trial was to start to charge two other men — who are witnesses in Fanjul's case — with lying about their activities with the alleged victim.

In the written motion, defense attorneys said the timing of the filing was "orchestrated." The attorneys said the information was given to the media, and the stories tainted Fanjul's potential jury pool.

All sides agreed Friday that a bench trial would be a fair alternative, and Boyden scheduled the four-day trial to begin on June 2.

"We have a lot of confidence in the judge," Brown said. "We think she'll be fair."

The Salt Lake County District Attorney's Office filed charges on April 30 against Bozhidar Petajan, 26, and Augustine Allotey, 30. Both men testified at a Jan. 12 hearing in the Fanjul case that they had never had any sexual contact with the girl. But after further investigation into their testimonies, prosecutors say the men lied about not having sexual contact with the girl, and both men were charged with making false material statements and obstructing justice.