Crime & Safety
Jury Enters 6th Day of Deliberations in School Rape Trial for Monrovia Man
A jury has deliberated for a week in the trial of Wade Bughman, a Monrovia man accused of sexually abusing his students at a Duarte elementary school.
A jury entered its sixth day of deliberations Friday in the trial of Wade Bughman, a Monrovia man charged with raping and molesting students at a Duarte elementary school.
The jury began deliberating on Thursday, Nov. 29 and returned to the Pasadena Superior Court jury room Friday to decide if Bughman is guilty of sexually abusing five students at Beardlee Elementary while he taught there.
Bughman is charged with 9 total sexual abuse counts including rape, lewd conduct with a child, digital penetration of a minor and forced oral copulation for allegedly assaulting five different students at Beardslee from 1997 to 2010.
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Prosecutor Debra Archuleta said in her closing arguments that Bughman is a "practiced manipulator" who sought out his victims carefully based on whether they would be likely to report the abuse.
Bughman's defense attorneys insist that the accusations made by the girls were fabricated.
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Correction: A previous version of this story stated that the jury was going into its seventh day of deliberations, but it did not deliberate Monday.
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