Ex-School Administrator Pleads Not Guilty to Sex Crimes Charges After YouTube Allegations

After a woman accuses her former middle school basketball coach of abusing her a decade ago in Riverside County, a second woman comes forward to say she is also a victim

A former school administrator accused of molesting two Riverside County girls pleaded not guilty in court on Friday.

Michelle Cardosa, 40, has been charged with five felony counts of aggravated assault on a child and 11 other sex-related charges.

A judge on Friday rejected her attorneys’ argument that the case should be dismissed because the statute of limitations has run out.

Officials began investigating allegations after one of the victims posted a video on YouTube titled "A call to my childhood rapist teacher," which showed the victim allegedly confronting Cardosa in a recorded phone conversation.

In the video, the victim thought that Cardosa would not face charges because the statute of limitations was up.

The case involving Cardosa came to light in January after Jane Doe 1, who is now an adult, found out that Cardosa was an assistant principal at Alhambra High School in Los Angeles County and called Cardosa.

That call was both video and audio taped, and the alleged victim posted the taped conversation on YouTube. That video had over 1 million views on YouTube. It has now been removed, as the video is now considered evidence in a criminal case.

Riverside detectives then began an investigation into the allegations that Cardosa had illegal sexual contact with Jane Doe 1 while the victim was a student at a middle school in the city of Riverside and continued while she was in high school.

The crimes involving Jane Doe 1 allegedly occurred from 1997 to 2001.

Within days of posting of the video on YouTube, Jane Doe 2 – also an adult – came forward to report that she also had been victimized by Cardosa when she was a student at a high school in Perris in 2009 or 2010, prosecutors said.

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