Crime

Former elementary school teacher and Hollister resident John Loyd, who is accused of sexually assaulting four young female students, will appear at South County Courthouse Aug. 3.

At a July 24 hearing at the Morgan Hill courthouse, Loyd waived the preliminary hearing, according to Santa Clara County Deputy District Attorney Tim McInerney. The preliminary hearing is when the judge would have heard evidence in order to determine if the case should go to trail. By waiving this proceeding Loyd, 52, is agreeing there is enough evidence to face a jury trial.

Loyd, a teacher at Paradise Valley Elementary School in Morgan Hill, faces multiple counts of lewd and lascivious acts toward a child, according to authorities. If convicted as charged, he faces a maximum sentence of life in prison.

Loyd has been on administrative leave from his fifth-grade teaching job at Paradise Valley since his arrest Oct. 2, when the first female victim—a student at the same school—told a school staff member that Loyd made inappropriate contact with her in his classroom, according to authorities.

Loyd has been a fifth-grade teacher at Paradise Valley since 2008. He started teaching in the Morgan Hill Unified School District in 2000 at Nordstrom Elementary, his last assignment before he was transferred to Paradise Valley.

Since his arrest, three more young female victims have been identified, authorities said.

Loyd remains in custody at Santa Clara County Jail without bail, according to authorities.

The San Benito County District Attorney’s Office has received the police report from the July 4 incident on Brigantino Drive resulting in injuries to five people.

Local authorities on Thursday morning seized an array of weapons and an estimate of between 70,000 and 80,000 marijuana plants along Frye Lane in San Benito County, according to a statement released Thursday afternoon.

Hollister police arrested a 17-year-old male on suspicion of drugging and raping a female over the July 4 weekend, according to police.

Hollister's police chief Wednesday expressed frustration after two arrests linked to accusations of sexual assault at a local daycare and urged residents to report crimes regardless of immigration status.

Hollister police arrested a couple running a daycare center on accusations linked to a sexual assault investigation, according to a Hollister Police Department report released Wednesday afternoon.

Read the latest blotter items from the Hollister Police Department.

Police reported making four arrests in connection with an apartment burglary in late June.

Hollister police had not submitted a report to the district attorney’s office in a July 4 fireworks case as of Friday, but expect to do so at some point this week, a department official has confirmed.

A judge Thursday sentenced the former treasurer of the Baler Band Booster Club after she had pleaded no contest in an embezzlement case, according to court records.