WALNUT CREEK — It was the kind of phone call that stays with a person for life.
A teen girl dialed up the climate and culture supervisor at her school to tell him two things: She was pregnant, and she was keeping the baby. But there was a key detail that police say she left out: Any mention of who the father was.
Despite her omission, police say 43-year-old Gerard Flaherty seemed to know the baby’s father was none other than himself. A panicked response followed. Flaherty allegedly started stammering about what it would mean for him and his family if she went through with her plan, speculating about a future behind bars, authorities said.
“I would go to jail if that happened,” Flaherty allegedly told her during the April 30 call. “They, they, they’ll do a DNA test … I just, it would, it would ruin so many lives.”
Flaherty didn’t know it then, but his life had already taken a serious turn for the worse. There were silent participants to the call: Walnut Creek police investigators, who slapped the cuffs on Flaherty later that day as he was driving to meet the 17-year-old girl and discuss the matter in person, authorities say.
Last May, prosecutors charged Flaherty, a Pleasant Hill resident, with rape, unlawful sexual intercourse and assault, but his time in jail was short lived. Flaherty’s lawyer argued that he was not a danger to the public, and on May 15, Contra Costa Judge John Kennedy agreed, releasing Flaherty without bail even after the county’s pretrial services department rejected him as a participant for GPS monitoring, court records show.
News of the arrest added drama to an already tumultuous time for the school. The same month Flaherty was charged, officials announced they were closing the school’s Walnut Creek campus due to lack of enrollment. After media outlets publicized Flaherty’s arrest, police say they received numerous tips from parents, including some that questioned how the school handled complaints about his behavior.
Some said they’d heard that Flaherty was known to visit with students with his door closed, which lines up with the alleged rape victim’s claim to police that that she’d taken naps in his office before. Another said that the school’s executive director, Catherine Foster, actually wrote an email to his wife saying that his daughter should spend time with Flaherty, police said.
A woman told police that her boyfriend’s daughter, who attended the school, said another student had confronted Flaherty about being a “pedophile.” Foster’s alleged response, according to the tipster, was to bring the daughter and Flaherty into an office and “interrogate” her about the incident, police said. The tipster said she heard about this from the girl, not from school staffers or administrators.
Foster did not respond to a request for comment.
Many of the details behind Flaherty’s arrest have not been made public until now.
It all started when the alleged victim, a teen girl who attended the Contra Costa School of the Performing Arts, came forward to police. She claimed that in February, Flaherty — who had an office on campus all to himself — told her he had alcoholic beverages that they could share. But first he wanted a hug, he told her, according to police.
Flaherty allegedly began fondling her, then forcibly raped her, prosecutors allege. Later, she told police he paid her to get a “Plan B” emergency contraception pill, and police say they found a corresponding $400 money transfer.
Six weeks later, the two were on the phone with police listening in. During the six-minute call, the girl told Flaherty she was keeping the baby. Flaherty asked her to think about his kids and how, “I would just like to not ruin their lives by having their dad go to prison for something like this,” authorities said.
When the girl said she had misgivings about abortions, Flaherty allegedly replied, “I think we’re on the same page for that.” But shortly thereafter police say he added that “this is a little bit of a different situation” and asked, “can we get you scheduled with an appointment?”
At the conversation’s end, the girl requested that they meet up in person. Flaherty allegedly agreed, but he never got there. Walnut Creek police pulled him over and arrested him, according to court records.
In a search of Flaherty’s office, authorities seized beer bottles and empty “Buzz Ball” alcohol bottles, as well as his computer, which he allegedly used to monitor security cameras to make sure no one would come to his office during the sexual assault.
Investigators also noted the room’s layout: a couch with blankets, beanbags and a covering to block out the small window to the office’s door. On a dry erase board someone wrote “Free K Relly,” an apparent anagram of R Kelly, the famed R&B singer serving prison time for child sex trafficking and producing child pornography.
Flaherty has pleaded not guilty. He is next due in court in late July.
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