VISTA – A prosecutor asked a jury yesterday to ignore “the smiling, public face” of an Escondido schoolteacher and focus on what she called a dark, private side that led him to molest 10 boys, including nine students.
Peter Ziskin repeatedly groped the boys for sexual arousal during what were supposed to be innocent wrestling games, prosecutor Tracy Prior said during closing arguments in the teacher's trial on 26 molestation charges.
Defense attorney Donald Levine argued that his client's rough play with the boys was innocent and that there was no sexual motive behind it. He said the prosecution's case was built on misperceptions and misinterpretations.
Ziskin, 44, of Solana Beach is accused of committing most of the molestations during class breaks and after school with Rincon Middle School students between late 2004 and January 2005. The wrestling sessions ended around Jan. 18, 2005, when an instructional aide saw Ziskin trying to pull his hand out of the pants of a student after spinning the boy on his shoulders, the prosecutor said.
The aide notified administrators, who launched an investigation and alerted Escondido police, who arrested Ziskin on Feb. 4, 2005. Ziskin also faces charges from a 2003 incident in which he is accused of molesting the young son of a friend while sleeping over at the boy's home.
If found guilty of all charges, Ziskin faces a maximum sentence of life in prison, Prior said.
The prosecutor focused on discrediting more than two dozen defense witnesses who vouched for Ziskin's good character and testified that he would never harm a child. Prior called the witnesses “biased” and said they did not want to accept the facts.
She also defended the credibility of the victims who testified during the two-week trial. Most of the children testified that they liked Ziskin and were confused about his actions, which is why they never reported the incidents to an adult.
“(Ziskin) did it over and over again. Why? Sexual intent,” Prior told the jury. “There is no other explanation for putting a hand down a kid's pants.”
Levine argued that the prosecution did not prove his client molested the children. At best, the evidence showed that Ziskin used “poor judgment” by engaging his students in wrestling games, the attorney said.
Levine told jurors Ziskin did not fit the typical profile of a child molester. Police found no child pornography on his computer, and the allegations stem from incidents in a classroom, sometimes in front of other students and adults. There also was no evidence that Ziskin tried to molest the students when he met them off campus.
The attorney argued that the children were compelled to testify against the teacher by adults who concluded that molestations had occurred.
“The government's arguments are factually inconsistent,” Levine told the jury. “It's a tragedy anytime a child gets molested. It's also a tragedy if someone is wrongly convicted of these serious crimes.”
The jury began deliberating late yesterday and is expected to continue today.
Jose Jimenez: (760) 737-7568; jose.jimenez@uniontrib.com
