By Cailin Garcia
WOODLAND – Deputy Public Defender Jose Gonzalez was apparently caught off guard here in Yolo County Superior Court Tuesday when a witness began describing her first encounter with the defendant, Taylor Gholar, at an elementary school after-school program.
The witness was the alleged victim’s mother, who stated that her first interaction with the defendant happened when she arrived to pick-up her daughter from an elementary school after-school program and witnessed Gholar standing with his arm wrapped around her.
According to Gonzalez, he did not receive any information about this alleged incident until the morning of the trial here.
Gholar’s case began in January 2020, when he was accused of contacting a 12-year-old girl, sending her sexually explicit pictures, and arranging a meeting with her.
His case was publicized by many local news organizations, including Fox40, the Sacramento Bee, KCRA, Newsbreak, and the Davis Vanguard. Many news sites reported that the accusations made against Gholar were especially concerning because of his previous employment at a Meadowview elementary school’s after-school program in 2016.
Now, nine months later, Gholar is on trial and facing two felony charges: allegedly arranging a meeting with a minor and contacting or communicating with a minor.
The victim’s mother was called as a witness by the Deputy District Attorney Sara Abate, who began the testimony by asking how her daughter initially met Gholar.
“I walked into the cafeteria one evening and Mr. Gholar had his hand around my daughter, maybe like her neck. He was just standing and casually talking to the other kids. I waited a minute to see 
how long it would take place,” said the victim’s mother. “I was very upset and I asked him, ‘Why do you have your hand around a student?’ We kinda got into an altercation.
“The next morning, I went to his supervisor… and the principal at the time. Everyone reassured me that what I felt was inappropriate was just friendly because my daughter sufferers from bullying at school a lot, and Mr. Taylor did have their back a lot,” the mother said, before she was interrupted by Gonzalez.
“Your Honor, I think we need to discuss this for a minute. I object, this is 1054,” said Gonzalez.
Judge Paul Richardson rejected Gonzalez’s request and allowed the witness to continue her testimony.
The witness said that her daughter, the victim, told her that she was concerned about “weird” and “inappropriate” messages she received on Instagram from Gholar. She went on to explain that she wasn’t very concerned at first, as Gholar was very familiar with the family at one point and often gave the children rides home from school and had meals with their family.
“He was definitely someone I trusted for a lot of years. I kept in contact in person and social media. He was someone that my daughter actually trusted a lot. He was one of her best friends,” said the mother.
According to their testimony, it had been the victim’s stepfather who initially questioned Gholar’s motives in contacting the victim.
The stepfather testified after the mother, noting that he became concerned when Gholar repeatedly asked the victim if her mother knew that they were messaging each other.
“If you’re an adult, to me, you wouldn’t question the child, you would question the parent or let the parent know you’re speaking to the child,” said the stepfather. “Being a guy, I just felt like I noticed little things, ulterior motives or hidden agendas within his questions, so I didn’t feel comfortable letting her continue the conversation. I brought it up to mom and we took over the phone.”
The victim’s parents were posing as their child over Instagram messages when Gholar allegedly sent sexually explicit messages and photos—they then decided to contact the police.
After the testimonies, the judge asked that the jury leave the courtroom so that the attorneys could be given an opportunity to put something on the court record.
“I objected on 1054 grounds, your honor. I wanted to approach to let the court know what was happening. And if I had the opportunity to approach I literally got this information this morning,” Gonzalez said once the room was cleared.
“I presume that this conduct is going to be used in argument to suggest that Mr. Gholar had some unnatural interest towards children or the minor in particular. And I don’t think that’s fair. I think that if I had that information, I would’ve been able to follow up on it and find other witnesses who were around to talk about whether or not that actually happened. And I would’ve been able to meet that information fairly at trial rather than having been surprised with it the day of,” said Gonzalez.
“I opened in my statement (saying) that Mr. Gholar is accused of doing something he wouldn’t otherwise do if he had been sober,” Gonzalez continued. “My request is that we get a late discovery instruction or I at least get to the jury that had I known that information earlier, I would’ve been able to get information to them to dispute that or do something else about it.”
“The People did receive that police report this morning and immediately disclosed it to Mr. Gonzalez,” countered District Attorney Abrate.
“I do not think we’re at a point that a late discovery instruction is necessarily needed. And I certainly don’t think that allowing arguments that ‘he could’ve done something with had he known’ is appropriate. That’s pure speculation,” said Abrate.
“It was already known that the defendant had a relationship with the family and that the minor knew him. So I don’t think that it is unduly prejudicial that he knew her at school, as it was already known that the defendant as it was already known that the defendant drove her home from school sometimes and had meals at their home and therefore had a comfort level with this family,” Abrate finished.
Judge Richardson decided to grant Gonzalez’s request for late discovery instruction.
“The fact that you may have only received the information today certainly doesn’t give the defense enough time to prepare for that type of information. I am going to allow a late discovery instruction and allow Mr. Gonzalez to explore that further, either with other witnesses or also to comment,” said the judge. “But in terms of unduly prejudiced, I don’t think it rises to that level,” said the judge.
Gholar’s trial is ongoing and is scheduled to resume on the morning of October 9.
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