Mcgrady guilty on three sex abuse charges
The victim of former Mother Lode Christian School Coach Mona Mcgrady cried as she embraced her mother outside of the South Washington Street courthouse Thursday afternoon.
Moments earlier, Mcgrady was found guilty of two counts of lewd or lascivious acts with a child aged 15 and one count of sexual penetration by a foreign object.
“Even Satan knew His word, the word of God,” Jane
Doe 1 said. “Her justice is coming. There’s no result here that will give her justice.”
Mcgrady was taken into the custody of the Tuolumne County Sheriff’s Office to await her sentencing date.
She was acquitted on eight additional counts of lewd or lascivious acts with a child.
“Not guilty sometimes means not proven to the level that it needs to be proven,” said Judge Kevin Seibert.
Tuolumne County Assistant District Attorney Eric Hovatter said she faces up to four years and four months in state prison, which Mcgrady will serve at 50 percent time because her crime was not considered a violent felony.
She will have to register as a sex offender.
Mcgrady's attorney, Clint Parish of Sonora, declined to comment.
Jane Doe 1's husband said following the verdict, “For what my wife had to do to bring justice for the whole community, nobody can just handle that. She went through torture. My wife deserved to have justice on Earth.”
Mcgrady was found guilty of performing the lewd acts at her home and once in a school office during basketball season, both when Jane Doe 1 was 15. The sexual penetration act was at a hotel in Modesto while the victim was under the age of 18.
“Sometimes justice takes a long time and this is an example of that justice taking a long time,” Hovatter said. “The people who made this happen are these two women.”
Earlier in the day, about 30 men and women congregated in a sea of lawn chairs, blankets and camaraderie in Courthouse Square awaiting the verdict.
They were friends and family of Jane Doe 1, whom former Mother Lode Christian School coach-mentor Mona Mcgrady is accused of sexually abusing in the 1990s.
“Everyone put their lives on hold,” said Trista Martin, a relative of Jane Doe 1. “We thought that it was important to stop everything for it.”
Most of them were the daily attendees to the public viewing of the trial, held in the Department 2 courtroom at the historic Tuolumne County Superior Courthouse on Yaney Avenue.
Mcgrady denied all of the accusations against her when she testified during the trial.
Before the verdict, Parish said Jane Doe 1's supporters were entitled to they're free speech.
“We're just waiting for the verdict,” Parish said.
The contingent of men, women and children who have taken up temporary residence in Courthouse Square say they've heard the allegations against Mcgrady for years.
Many of them are former students at Mother Lode Christian School in Tuolumne or former and current members of Chapel in the Pines, a Twain
Harte church Mcgrady once attended in the 1990s and 2000s.
“I felt like I should be out here and make a presence,” said Deborah Desmond, who said she is a friend of Jane Doe 1 and member of George and Mary's Ministry in Tuolumne.
They refer to each other as a sisterhood, all residents of Tuolumne County. Jane Doe 1 is there, at all times surrounded by friends and family. In solidarity to her story, more than 20 of them got matching tattoos this week.
“It's in God's hands,” Martin said. “We're not here to stand against the
Mcgradys. Everyone is so close here. We're involved with each other.”
Many are also friends and close with Jane Doe 2, the second alleged victim in the case who disclosed her story to law enforcement in 2001. Her allegations were beyond the statute of limitations to be charged against Mcgrady, though she testified to a prolonged relationship of child sexual abuse during the trial.
Each of them said they're convinced of the truth of Jane Doe 1's story. Many of them attest to having heard of the allegations for decades, though for much of that time they intended to seek out justice within their community and church as opposed to court.
“There has been so much division with this,” Martin said. “It's never been resolved. It's been terrible.”
Most of them say they know the Mcgrady family well. For decades they've crossed paths as friends, in church and within the Tuolumne County community.
Many are former or current members of Chapel in the Pines, a Christian church in Twain Harte.
Amanda Atkins is a relative of Jane Doe 1 and sister-in-law with Mcgrady's daughter. She said since the early confrontations in 2001 to Mcgrady about the allegations, many sought to have Mcgrady seek repentance with God instead of in court.
Their motivations changed, they said, when Jane Doe 1 decided to tell her story.