Prosecutors say they’ve identified second sexual assault victim of Danville middle school teacher

DANVILLE — Contra Costa prosecutors announced that they’ve filed three felony charges against a Concord man who worked as a Danville middle school teacher and a cheerleading coach, after identifying two students as victims.

Nicholas Moseby, 41, was charged with molesting two girls, aged 13 and 15, as well as sending obscene material to one of them. He remains in custody in lieu of $200,000 bail, court records show.

Moseby was arrested earlier this week after one of the girls reported that he’d allegedly sent her a video of himself masturbating, after adding her on Snapchat. During a police interview she told an investigator he inappropriately touched her during a cheerleading session, authorities said.

The second alleged victim was identified after reports of Moseby’s arrest became public. Police have said he coached her but haven’t yet revealed whether she was a cheerleading student or attended a school where he taught.

Moseby’s stepmother, Elizabeth Moseby, said in an email to this newspaper she believes her son is the victim of a “vendetta” that is “fueled by racial hatred” at the Danville school where he taught. She said last year students were disciplined for threatening Moseby and that at least one of the threats included a racial slur.

“In the meantime, Nicholas was hired at Diablo Vista Middle School and has been very busy teaching, going to night school and working with the NorCal Cheer Squad as well as spending time with his partner and their five dogs,” Elizabeth Moseby said. “He enjoys cooking tomahawk steaks, barbecue, and gumbo – all of which are very time consuming.”

Nicholas Moseby worked at Diablo Vista Middle School, which is part of the San Ramon Valley School District, as a biology teacher but occasionally substituted as a physical education coach, according to police. He also worked at Nor Cal Elites, a privately-owned youth cheerleading organization. Last year, he worked at San Ramon Valley High, also in Danville, as a teacher.

After his arrest, Nor Cal Elites fired him and the San Ramon Valley Unified School District placed him on leave, spokespersons for both the district and the company told this news organization. The district’s communications director said in an email that “student safety is always our top priority” and that parents were alerted after the arrest.

“We are shocked and appalled by the allegations and arrest of Nicholas Moseby. We have and will fully cooperate with law enforcement regarding this matter,” Donna Potter, a spokeswoman for Nor Cal Elites, wrote in an email to this news organization. “We take this very seriously and once we heard of his arrest we took swift and appropriate action to release him from employment. We do not tolerate any inappropriate, unsafe, or illegal behavior from our staff, especially when it concerns our students.”

Moseby had a 2009 arrest for allegedly furnishing alcohol to a minor in Gilbert, Arizona, but was never charged, according to court records. The arrest would have disqualified him from teaching but didn’t show up on his background report when he applied for his teaching job because Gilbert police never fingerprinted him, according to authorities. Gilbert police didn’t respond to emails seeking comment. At the time of his 2008 arrest, he was 28 years old.

That prior arrest stemmed from a New Year’s Eve party where Moseby allegedly bought alcohol at a Walmart for a 17-year-old girl who was friends with Moseby’s girlfriend at the time, an 18-year-old high school student who attended the school where Moseby worked. The 17-year-old reported to police that Moseby’s roommate at the time sexually assaulted her at the party after she’d become intoxicated. Moseby was never charged and denied the allegations, court records show.

The recent allegations against Moseby arose Sept. 6, when the alleged victim’s parents called police to report the Snapchat video. The girl said that Moseby sent her messages on Snapchat, followed by innocuous videos of the gym where they held cheerleading practices. Later, he allegedly asked her for pictures of herself in pajamas, so she sent him a picture of herself wearing a hooded sweatshirt, records show.