West High teacher not guilty in sex case

Nearly the entire courtroom burst into tears Friday when the judge pronounced West High School teacher Jose Bernardo Fanjul not guilty of illegal sexual conduct with a 16-year-old female student.

There were whoops and hollers of joy for Fanjul, who stood, tears streaming down his cheeks, while one supporter after another crushed him in emotional hugs and wept on his shoulders.

Meanwhile, across the aisle, the girl put her head down and sobbed, sitting with her father's arm around her and her stepmother on the other side gently stroking her back. The girl's family left through a secure back door while Fanjul and a group of friends and relatives went to an empty witness room on the first floor of the courthouse for private prayer.

Fanjul, 46, had faced five counts of forcible sodomy and five counts of forcible sexual abuse, all second-degree felonies that each carry a potential prison term of up to 15 years behind bars. He chose to have a bench trial, in which 3rd District Judge Ann Boyden alone rather than a jury would determine his fate.

Outside the courtroom, a visibly relieved and tired-looking Fanjul thanked God, his attorneys and his wife, Angela, for supporting him.

"I live in the greatest country in the world," the Venezuelan native said. "I was afraid this would turn into a lynching, a high-tech lynching, my own lynching. But thanks to (my attorney) and a judge who is outstanding and honorable, they stopped the lynching."

Defense attorney Kenneth Brown termed the verdict "justice" and said he loved it.

"It's a judgment of a system that works," Brown said. "There has to be proof, not a possibility (of wrongdoing)."

Another West High employee, Marco Herrera, 54, a school counselor, is in prison after he admitted he had engaged in illegal sexual activity with the same girl. No one in Fanjul's case challenged Herrera's guilt. Herrera's situation was discovered by impeccable witnesses — police officers who chanced upon him engaging in sexual behavior with the girl in a public place.