The Humboldt County District Attorney’s Office has filed an eight-count criminal complaint against Fortuna Union High School teacher Gary Landergen, accusing him of sexually assaulting three 15-year-old females over the course of four days this year.
Landergen, who teaches math and coaches athletics at Fortuna High School, was arrested on April 6 on suspicion of sexually assaulting two kids, according to Fortuna Police Chief Casey Day. Days after Landergen’s arrest, Day informed the Journal that a third student had come forward to police to tell them about “several talks” with Landergen that he considered uncomfortable and inappropriate.
While the Fortuna Police Department named two victims in the case in the investigative report it sent prosecutors, Deputy District Attorney Whitney Timm indicated by email that “an additional offense had been committed against a third victim.”
Prosecutors filed a criminal complaint last week charging him with four felony charges of perpetrating a “lewd and lascivious act” on a child with the goal of “arousing, appealing to, and gratifying the defendant’s lust, passions, and sexual wants.” The charges stem from four alleged sexual assaults against three girls between March 30 and April 2, including one in which Landergen allegedly grabbed one of the girls’ buttocks and told her, “I love you.”
Two counts of misdemeanor sexual battery against the victim’s consent and “for the specific purpose of sexual arousal” are also included in the complaint, as are two counts of unlawfully disturbing or molesting a juvenile under 18 allegedly committed between Jan. 1 and April 2.
Landergen faces three felony counts, each carrying a maximum penalty of three years in state prison and requiring him to register as a sex offender.
Landergen had been placed on administrative leave by the Fortuna Union High School District soon before his arrest. He was released from detention after posting $35,000 bond and is set to appear in court on May 25.
Landergen returned to Fortuna High School this year after teaching there earlier in the 1990s before moving to Argonaut High School in Amador County. He coached the school’s track and field team and was co-coach of the wrestling team in the fall, in addition to teaching arithmetic. Day said FPD officers had contacted Argonaut High School administrators to inform them of the charges against Landergen in Fortuna and to inquire whether any similar allegations had been made there.
