Teacher charged with lewd acts

BY COLBY FRAZIER
DAILY SOUND STAFF WRITER

A teacher at El Camino Elementary School in Goleta and an Old Spanish Days Fiesta board member was arrested by Ventura City Police last Thursday and charged with a felony count of performing a lewd act with an 11-year-old boy.
Martin Corral, 36, who taught academically challenged children, was taken into custody without incident after police obtained search warrants for his home in Ventura and the school.

Sgt. Jack Richards, a public information officer for the Ventura Police Department, said Corral’s arrest came after a month-long investigation. Richards said the victim is from Goleta but would not say if the boy is a student at El Camino School.
He said Corral befriended the boy’s mother and received permission from her to take the boy to his home in Ventura where the lewd act occurred. Goleta Union School District Superintendent Kathleen Boomer said Corral has been placed on unpaid administrative leave. Boomer said Corral has taught at El Camino School since 2005, but worked for the district prior to taking a job in Ventura.
She said the district has never fielded any complaints from students or parents dealing with Corral’s conduct. Boomer said as far as she knew, the victim is not a student at El Camino School.
“He’s very well respected in the community,” Boomer said of Corral.
Boomer said letters were sent home with students on Friday notifying parents of the charge brought against Corral. The letter also asked anyone with further information to come forward. Boomer said Corral was picked up for questioning at the school before work on Thursday and arrested later that day in Ventura.
In Corral’s short biography on the Old Spanish Days website, he says he was born and raised in Santa Barbara and has served on the board since 2004.
“At the moment I am teaching 3rd through 5th graders Early Californian Dances that were performed in Santa Barbara and Los Angeles in the late 1800s,” Corral says in his bio.
Sarah O’Connell, executive director of Old Spanish Days, said in order to become a board member, Corral had to have been endorsed by two other board members. After an interview process, the board then voted Corral onto the 35 member board.
O’Connell said Corral dealt with La Fiesta Pequena, the annual celebration’s opening ceremony and Las Noches De Ronda, show at the Santa Barbara County Courthouse.
“We have never received any allegations of misconduct relating to his duties at Old Spanish Days,” O’Connell said.