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The long-anticipated trial for a former cheer coach and science teacher in the San Ramon Valley is on track to conclude this week, more than a month after it first kicked off and more than three years after the criminal case was first brought forward.
Nicholas Moseby, the defendant in the case who taught biology in the San Ramon Valley Unified School District and served as a cheer and tumbling coach at NorCal Elite, took the stand this week to deny allegations of sexual misconduct by multiple former students.
Moseby — who pleaded not guilty to all charges — underwent a lengthy direct examination by his defense attorney Manisha Daryani as the trial proceeded Monday and Tuesday, with cross examination by prosecutor Jessica Murad kicking off Tuesday afternoon and set to continue Wednesday morning.
Throughout direct examination, Moseby laid out the details of his longstanding career as a cheer coach for multiple teams throughout California and Arizona, his brief tenure as a teacher at SRVUSD prior to his arrest in 2022, and his experiences with the multiple alleged victims in the criminal proceedings.Â
Moseby denied any and all allegations of sexual assault, abuse, or other impropriety with students, other than admitting to accidentally sending an inappropriate picture to a student he’d been coaching at NorCal Elite, calling it “the worst mistake of my life”.
As Murad’s cross-examination kicked off Tuesday afternoon, she sought to challenge Moseby’s account during direct examination, specifically seeking to contend that he had lied about his reasons for returning to California from Arizona. Although Moseby admits to a 2009 charge for providing alcohol to a minor during a party at his house in Arizona, he said that it did not cause him to be fired from any of his coaching work, and that it was not the reason he returned to California.
Two other witnesses took the stand prior to the start of Moseby’s testimony Monday afternoon. The first was a forensics expert who, upon direct examination by Murad, agreed with her conclusion that false negatives are possible in forensic testing for the presence of semen. However, she also concurred with Daryani during cross-examination that a negative test is generally accurate, and that no further confirmatory testing was ordered for an item that had been tested for this case.
The second witness to take the stand Monday, called by the defense, was Kim Fischer Hayes, a third grade teacher in the San Lorenzo Unified School District whose now 20-year-old daughter had first started training with Moseby approximately 15 years ago.
Fischer Hayes said that in her opinion, Moseby would never assault a child, and that she and her daughter had observed zero cause for concern during more than a decade of training with him.
“I think the cheer community did trust him, and that’s why he was so booked up with private (lessons),” Fischer Hayes said. “I believe he’s truthful.”
A longtime educator, Fischer Hayes said that she had gone on to provide advice to Moseby when he first began working at SRVUSD, first as a substitute teacher in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic before, then going on to teach biology full time at San Ramon Valley High School during the start of the 2021 to 2022 school year.
“When he got his first job at the high school teaching biology, we were discussing classroom management,” Fischer Hayes said. “Some instances were how students were walking in late to the classroom and causing chaos.”
Moseby went on to argue during direct examination Tuesday afternoon that his troubles with two of the alleged victims – who were from that class – stemmed from their lack of respect and discipline in the classroom environment and the challenge that posed to him as new teacher. He denied all allegations from the two about alleged sexual harassment or assault, including allegedly telling them “you’re lucky you’re hot”.
The jury was dismissed at 4:30 p.m. Tuesday afternoon, and ordered to reconvene at 10:30 a.m. Wednesday morning for continued cross-examination. Closing arguments were also set to begin during Wednesday’s proceedings, according to a spokesperson for the Contra Costa County District Attorney’s Office.
Moseby is facing three felony charges for lewd acts upon children as well as one felony charge for distributing lewd material to a minor. He is also facing two misdemeanor charges for child molestation and one for sexual battery.
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