Former Hilldale band teacher: I had free rein

By Donna Hales
Phoenix Staff Writer

August 14, 2008 10:40 pm

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A federal judge is expected to announce at 9 a.m. today whether a civil rights suit against Hilldale Public Schools will be dismissed.
The suit was filed by the parents of a former Hilldale student who was 14 when she was repeatedly raped and molested by former Hilldale band director Danny Brian Giacomo in 2006.
Giacomo, 38, pleaded guilty in March to 16 sex crimes against the 14-year old and/or a 15-year-old Hilldale band student. He was sentenced to six years in prison and 29 years probation. He was brought from jail Thursday to testify.
Giacomo testified the rapes and molestations of the 14-year-old occurred during school hours, after school, before school, in the girl’s home, in the school parking lot, a band storage room and once in the Hilldale Event Center.
He said he would send a note to a teacher and ask if the girl could leave the teacher’s class to “practice or whatever. Sometimes she would be allowed to get out of class.”
When asked where he touched her, he said he touched her everywhere.
“You knew it was going to cause harm to a little girl forever, and you did it anyway?” plaintiff’s attorney Rich Toon asked Giacomo.
Giacomo answered, “yes.”
He said he didn’t know how many times he sexually harassed the 14-year-old.
“Numerous times,” Giacomo said.
“More than 100 times?” Toon asked.
“I don’t know,” Giacomo said.
“Too many to count?” Toon asked.
“Yes,” Giacomo said.
He said a lot of people knew, and he blamed himself and the school.
“I had free rein — they (Hilldale officials) never really checked up on me,” Giacomo said.
Hilldale attorney Karen Long asked the judge to dismiss the case after the plaintiffs rested.
Long argued before the judge that the plaintiffs had not proven Hilldale officials were negligent.
A male student testified he told then Assistant High School Principal Darren Riddle about Giacomo in May 2006. The male said a female band student was lying barefoot on Giacomo’s bed in a St. Louis hotel during an April 2006 band trip. The male student testified he told Riddle that Giacomo was a pedophile.
Hilldale School officials confirmed the Department of Human Services was never notified of the male student’s complaint, as state law requires.
“DHS is going to laugh you right off the phone if you call to report two people are in a room — that does not constitute abuse,” Long told U.S. District Judge James H. Payne.
She argued the May 2006 complaint was not legal notice to the school.
Giacomo testified Thursday that Riddle never asked him in May 2006 if he was a pedophile — if he had sex with the student or if he had molested her. Riddle didn’t ask for the female student’s name.
Riddle said in court Tuesday he did not investigate because the boy later said he was lying, which the boy denied in testimony Thursday.
Giacomo testified the 14-year-old wouldn’t have been raped from May into November 2006 had the May complaint been investigated properly.
After that first complaint, he took the 14-year-old to a band camp in Weatherford as part of a school event.
Giacomo testified the 15-year-old probably never would have been molested if the May complaint had been investigated.
Long argued the school trusted Giacomo because there was nothing in his record for them not to trust him.
Giacomo claimed his Fifth Amendment right and refused to answer any questions about e-mails to the 14-year-old victim or information retrieved from the Internet.
The 14-year-old testified Thursday, but only about her medication, her treatment, how she felt and how she was doing.
Long did not cross-examine her.

Photos

Giacomo