An Orange County piano instructor molested 11 victims over 18 years, often showing the girls pornographic images and spreading their legs in a metronome exercise, a prosecutor told a judge Tuesday in the defendant’s non-jury trial as his defense attorney said his client is “touchy-feely” and has difficulty restraining himself.
John Mordecai Scott, 65, is charged with molesting nine victims and two other victims will testify in the trial to help prosecutors establish a pattern.
The first case is alleged to have occurred in 1996 with a girl whose breast was groped during one lesson and her legs spread at other times during a metronome-like exercise to work on timing in the music, Deputy District Attorney Kristin Bracic told Orange County Superior Court Judge Steve Bromberg, who is presiding over the non-jury trial and will decide guilt or innocence.
Scott was accused of having the girl lie down on a piano bench while he lifted the waistband of her panties, Bracic said. She was instructed to not tell her parents, she added.
The girl did not come forward until 2002 when she made a complaint to his former employer at Music Makers in 2002, but did not follow up when she was told he didn’t work there anymore, Bracic said. She mistakenly thought she could not, the prosecutor added.
Another girl, who took lessons from him when she was 11 in his Lake Forest home, saw that he would leave pornographic magazines lying around the house, Bracic said.
Scott is accused of sexually assaulting that victim with his finger, claiming at the time he was a “doctor” examining her to see if she was developing normally, Bracic said.
Scott, who also had a room in his home for photography, took semi-nude photos of the girl, Bracic said.
Another victim was 15 when she “took racy photos with the defendant,” Bracic said.
While driving the teen to his home he discussed his sex life, doing drugs and tried to persuade her to put on a G-string bikini for photographs, Bracic said. The girl refused, but did put on various dresses for photos as he insisted she undress in front of him, Bracic said.
At one point he showed her pornographic images on a computer and, “He said, `You know, you could do internet porn,”’ Bracic alleged.
The teen declined, but did model lingerie before cutting the session short when she looked over and saw he had disrobed, Bracic said.
“She says, no, no, we’re done here,” Bracic said, adding the defendant “apologized profusely” and implored her not to tell anyone.
The teen went to police, but no charges were brought at the time, Bracic said.
In 2002-2005, another victim was 7 years old when she started taking lessons from him at her home, Bracic said. The defendant waited for times when they were alone and that, “It began with tickling,” she added.
Once he walked in on her as she relieved herself in the bathroom under the guise of ensuring she washed her hands, Bracic said.
Scott is accused of groping her once and slipping in pages from pornographic magazines in the music sheets, Bracic said.
Because Scott was a family friend she worried no one would believe her, so she once hid a copy of the adult magazine when he was out of the room and planned to show it to her family later, Bracic said.
Scott left the house, but later returned, glaring at the girl as he hurriedly looked for the magazine, which he found hidden behind a curtain and then left, Bracic said.
That incident prompted the girl to finally tell her mother and it was the last lesson, Bracic said.
In another incident in May 2006, Scott nearly got caught as he approached a 17-year-old girl on the street to pay her to model for pictures, Bracic said.
Two narcotics officers saw the activity and stopped to question him and he said initially he thought the girl was 18, Bracic said. A report was taken, but no charges filed.
In June 2007 he was accused of showing pornographic images to an 11-year-old girl during a lesson at his home and suggested she pose for pictures in a leopard-print bathing suit, which she refused to do, Bracic said. Despite telling her parents about the incident no charges were filed at the time.
Between May 2010 and October 2013, another girl took lessons from when she was 8 to 11 at Coast Band Music in Mission Viejo, Bracic said. The defendant, “took a lot of pictures of her, mostly doing gymnastics,” the prosecutor said.
In some of the pictures, she was “sipping water from phallic-shaped water bottles,” Bracic said. He also used the “metronome game of spreading her legs to the music,” the prosecutor added.
In January 2011 through July 2014, another girl started lessons with him when she was 8, Bracic said.
By that time, Scott was divorced from his wife and was doing lessons at Coast Band Music and his home, she said.
Once, while her mother waited in the car, he did a lesson where he “took a ton of pictures” of the girl as well as “videos of her jumping on his bed” while showing her pictures of nude women, suggesting, “You should pose like this,” Bracic said.
The girl said she did not want to take lessons from him anymore, but after some negotiations she agreed to one last make-up lessons at Coast Music and then after that she told her family what had been happening, Bracic said.
That sparked another police investigation.
Another alleged victim took lessons from him from July 2011 through June 2014 when she was 13 to 15 years old, Bracic said. He did the “metronome” exercise with her, molested her over and under her clothes and showed her pornographic pictures, Bracic said.
The youngest alleged victim was 5 to 6 years old in September through May 2013 when she took lessons, Bracic said. That girl is autistic, the prosecutor added.
Another alleged victim took lessons in 2013-14 when she was 14 years old and the two engaged in “inappropriate talk” as he asked her about various sex acts and showed her “lesbian porn,” Bracic said.
The Orange County Sheriff’s Department investigation that led to the charges began in August 2014, Bracic said.
Investigators found images of three girls in his files with some pornographic but “the vast majority” being child erotica, Bracic said.
Scott’s attorney, Ed Munoz, told the judge that his client “trained and instructed hundreds of people” over the years, including some students in their 80s and some as young as 5.
Munoz said his client “is rather an ordinary man” in many respects who has a “profound passion for music, and he was actually pretty good at it.”
Scott was able to earn a living as a musician, but then a viral infection caused deafness in his left ear, ending his career, Munoz said. His wife encouraged him to take up photography, which he did, as he started offering lessons to make ends meet, the attorney said.
“He tried to meld (music and photography) together,” Munoz said.
Scott is a “very demonstrative” and “needy person,” who “likes to embrace and touch people — even the parents” of his students, Munoz said.
Scott would even provide photography for some of the parents for their businesses, Munoz said.
Munoz asked Bromberg to listen to the evidence to “parse out what is appropriate, innocuous behavior” from the more “detrimental conduct” that is alleged.
Scott is charged with eight counts of lewd or lascivious acts with a minor younger than 14, five lewd acts on a child 14 to 15, seven counts of lewd or lascivious acts with a minor, a count of using an underage person for obscene matter, a count of possession or control of child pornography, a count of exhibition of lewd material to a minor and two counts of distributing pornography to a minor with the intent to engage in sexual conduct, all felonies. He is also charged with two misdemeanor counts of child annoyance.