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A former teacher and cheer coach in the San Ramon Valley was remanded to custody Wednesday morning to begin a yearslong prison sentence that was ordered by a judge at the conclusion of his sentencing hearing.
Nicholas Moseby was sentenced to three years and eight months in prison by Contra Costa Superior Court Judge Joni Hiramoto, who imposed the prison sentence after disagreeing with a recommendation from the probation office and Moseby’s defense.
“The defendant is never going to acknowledge wrongdoing – he is not remorseful, and he will not admit that he has sexual interest in teenage females,” Prosecutor Jessica Murad said.
That was the position Hiramoto would come to agree with after hearing statements from both sides in person Wednesday morning, including an in-person impact statement from one of the victims, Jane Doe 5, and her mother.
“I think there was evidence of sexual interest in children, and the jury so found,” Hiramoto said in Wednesday’s hearing.
Murad and Hiramoto both questioned the analysis of the county’s probation office, which had recommended Moseby as a candidate for probation and rehabilitation, and which had concluded that Moseby showed no signs of genuine sexual interest in children or typical signs of pedophilia, but had instead made a one-off mistake in sending a sexual video of himself to a child he was coaching.
Moseby was found guilty by a jury of that felony – one he admitted to during the trial, but said was a mistake – as well as for one felony count of a lewd act upon a child, two misdemeanor counts of child molestation, and one misdemeanor count of sexual battery. The jury found him not guilty and declared a mistrial in two other felony counts for lewd acts against children.
Moseby’s attorney Manisha Daryani had contended that Moseby was already making progress toward rehabilitation in the months since his conviction on Oct. 29, evidenced by support from members of his church, his ongoing mental health treatment, and his steps toward enrolling in a rehabilitation program for perpetrators of child sex abuse, as well as his ongoing sobriety.
“I am proud of the work Mr. Moseby has put in,” Daryani said. “He has demonstrated that both faith and treatment have been important and will continue to be important.”
Daryani noted that Moseby’s conviction, and lifetime registry as a sex offender, means that he will never teach or work with children again, and that he has “moved away from spaces those concerns predicated from.”
In response to Murad’s critique of the probation recommendation, Daryani expressed frustration over the burden of proof being pointed to by the prosecution.
“For every document, every statement, the people demand a level of exactness and proof that sometimes borders on impossible,” Daryani said. “While the people want to belabor their concerns, probation had the exact same information.
Hiramoto later continued to question whether the probation office was aware of the crimes Moseby had been found guilty of, noting that they were multiple incidents over the course of several years, not just a one-off incident, that he was convicted for.
“There’s either a minimization of what the jury found to be true or it was not provided,” Hiramoto said.
She added that the doctor’s letter supporting the probation recommendation included “no acknowledgment that Mr. Moseby was blaming the students” and showed “no expression of remorse, no acknowledgment of the harm caused.”
“I think there is no acknowledgement, and a denial that there was sexual interest in minors,” Hiramoto said.
Despite years having elapsed since the crimes Moseby was convicted of, Jane Doe 5, her mother, and the mother of another victim all pointed to the “deeply rooted” nature of his conduct and its effects.
“The responsibility for what happened lies entirely with the defendant, and I did nothing to deserve it,” Jane Doe 5 said. “I ask that the court consider the lasting effects of this betrayal in sentencing.”
While Moseby himself did not speak at the sentencing hearing, he is continuing to argue that he is innocent in a parallel civil case filed last year by some of the same victims, in which he has submitted a countersuit alleging that he was the subject of a racially motivated smear campaign during his time teaching at San Ramon Valley High School.
Moseby’s initial cross-complaint was dismissed earlier this year, but an amended cross-complaint is set to continue working its way through the courts. Hearings on motions to strike portions of the amended cross-complaint, and on a demurrer to it, are scheduled for March.
The total sentence issued by Hiramoto Wednesday is three years and eight months of prison time. Moseby is being granted for 107 days of time served for the time he spent in jail after his arrest in 2022.
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