Hung jury in trial for former cop accused of molesting 2 Modesto girls

Jurors on Wednesday told a judge they could not reach a verdict, which means a former police officer and college instructor accused of sexually molesting two Modesto girls will stand trial a second time.

Francisco “Frank” Jose Drumond is charged with two counts of committing lewd acts with a child. He is accused of molesting the two girls, who were friends of his daughter. They are referred to in court as Jane Doe 1 and Jane Doe 2.

The jury of five women and seven men started deliberating Friday afternoon but only for a short time before they had to go home. The jurors resumed deliberations Tuesday morning and continued for the rest of the day without reaching a verdict.

The jurors returned to the deliberation room Wednesday. About 2 p.m., the jury notified the court it was hopelessly deadlocked.

The judge asked the jurors for a vote count. There was a 10-to-2 vote on the charge stemming from Jane Doe 1’s allegations. There was an 11-to-1 vote on the charge stemming from Jane Doe 2’s allegations.

A man who says he was a member of the jury said on Thursday morning the majority vote on each count was in favor of acquittal. He believed there was reasonable doubt in the allegations made against Drumond, and the prosecution had not presented enough evidence to meet its burden of proof.

Drumond was in the courtroom Wednesday afternoon without his attorney, Frank Carson, who was unable to attend. Attorney Mary Lynn Belsher appeared in court with the defendant in Carson’s place.

When the judge excused the jury and asked about when a second trial will be scheduled, a member of Drumond’s family left the courtroom crying.

The defendant appeared confused about the second trial. He asked Belsher, “What is happening?” She explained to Drumond the situation.

Then, the judge told the defendant that there still is sufficient evidence for him to stand trial, and his case is not over.

“Mr. Drumond, we go back to square one. ... It starts all over,” said Stanislaus Superior Court Judge Marie Silveira.

The judge scheduled Drumond to return to court May 6 to schedule the second trial. He’ll remain free on bail.

Jane Doe 1 has testified that Drumond molested her in August 2009. She said they were watching a movie when Drumond started massaging her. She testified that the touching slowly escalated to Drumond slipping his hand inside her bikini bottoms.

Drumond testified that the incident Jane Doe 1 described did not happen, and that he never made her promise to keep silent about anything, as she’d said he did. He said the girl had been at his home four to six times in the 10 days before the allegations surfaced and never had acted strange or disturbed around him.

About a week later, Jane Doe 1 joined Drumond and his daughter on a road trip to the Bay Area. They were going to drop off a teenage German exchange student at the airport. Jane Doe 2 also went along on the road trip.

Jane Doe 2 told investigators that she rode in the front passenger seat of Drumond’s Chevrolet Tahoe, and that the defendant rubbed her arms, legs and across the top of her chest throughout the drive back to Modesto from the Bay Area.

Drumond testified that his daughter rode in the front passenger seat during the entire ride home, and that Jane Doe 1 and 2 were in the back seat.

Jane Doe 2 told investigators that she and Jane Doe 1 were on both sides of Drumond on the living room couch that night, watching TV, while the defendant’s daughter was asleep on the other end of the couch. She said the defendant later touched her upper inner thigh before groping her buttocks.

The defendant testified that nothing like that happened. He said he was working in his office before joining the girls in the living room, and that all three girls were awake watching a movie.

Jane Doe 2 told investigators she went to the bathroom three times that night with Jane Doe 1 to explain what Drumond was doing to her. She said the girls returned to their positions on the couch twice, before hiding in Drumond’s daughter’s bedroom after the third trip to the bathroom.

Drumond testified that the girls used the bathroom only once that night, and that he wasn’t keeping track of where they were going.

The defendant resigned from his job as a reserve Ripon police officer days after police showed up at his Modesto home to investigate the claims of lewd acts with the teenage girls. He previously worked as a police officer in Modesto and Patterson.

He was arrested during a staff meeting Aug. 28, 2009, at the Modesto Junior College East Campus, where he taught criminal justice.

Prosecutors initially filed sexual abuse charges against Drumond. The third alleged victim was a woman who said she was a 17-year-old police Explorer more than 20 years ago, and that Drumond forced her to perform oral sex on him. She was identified in court as Jane Doe 3.

In his opening statement, Carson told the jury that his client was a 24-year-old man then, and that Jane Doe 3 was 18 and 19 years old when she had consensual sex with the defendant.

The defense attorney said it was more than one isolated incident, and that Jane Doe 3 claimed a repressed memory of his supposed misconduct surfaced when she saw Drumond about 20 years later and he didn’t acknowledge her.

Jane Doe 3 testified in the trial, but she refused to continue answering what she called “appalling” questions from the defense attorney. Deputy District Attorney Beth O’Hara De Jong told the judge that Carson had a “harassing tone” during cross-examination of Jane Doe 3.

Judge Silveira called dropped the charge stemming from Jane Doe 3’s allegations because she refused to continue with cross-examination. The judge has said the defendant would be deprived of a fair trial if he had to face a charge when the woman refused to complete her testimony.

Silveira ordered the jurors to disregard all the testimony from Jane Doe 3. She also informed them that count 3 in the case had been dismissed, and they shouldn’t speculate or assume why the charge was dropped.

This story was originally published March 18, 2015 at 4:24 PM with the headline "Hung jury in trial for former cop accused of molesting 2 Modesto girls."