A deadlocked jury prompted a judge to declare a mistrial Friday in the case against a former Army and Navy Academy headmaster accused of molesting three former middle-school cadets at the military boarding school in Carlsbad.
Jeffrey Barton, 57, was acquitted of four counts, but jurors said they could not reach a unanimous decision on 16 other molestation counts. A Nov. 12 hearing was set to determine how to proceed.
The charges against Barton involve allegations dating back to 1997, when he was a teacher at the boarding school.
In addition to the three alleged victims, prosecutors presented four other accusers who claimed Barton molested them at two other schools in the mid- 1980s. The defendant is not charged with molesting those victims.
Barton started working at Army and Navy Academy in 1995 and became the head of schools in 2012. He resigned in 2013 after the allegations arose.
— City News Service