VISTA, Calif. (KGTV) - A retrial is underway for an ex-headmaster at a North County military boarding school accused of sexually assaulting a student nearly 20 years ago.
Jeffrey Barton, who worked at the Army and Navy Academy in Carlsbad from 1995 to 2013, is being retried on 11 counts of molestation linked to the alleged assault of a cadet at the academy from 1999 to 2001.
In late 2015, jurors deadlocked on those charges, but Barton was acquitted of abusing other cadets.
Story from Nov. 12, 2015:
Prosecutors say the former cadet will testify about the repeated abuse sometime next week.
The trial could last until the end of the month with testimony from former students from different states who say Barton also sexually abused them. Barton has not been charged with molesting them.
One of Barton's accusers, a former student from Tennessee, now in his 30s, took the stand Tuesday morning. He said Barton allowed him and a friend to go on a trip to Atlanta to watch a hockey game in 1993, but he said this wasn’t a school sanction trip.
The alleged victim, who will remain anonymous, said Barton took him and the friend to a hotel room. Later that night, he said he woke up to Barton sexually abusing him. The alleged victim said he turned over in his bed and tried to ignore it, but said the abuse happened again that night.
"You feel weak," the alleged victim said. "Like you should have been able to stop it. I didn’t want anyone to think that I could have stopped it twice. I carried a huge amount of grief and guilt."
If Barton is convicted, he faced up to 88 years in prison.
