Kevin Patrick Kirkland
REDLANDS – A 56-year-old high school math teacher has been arrested on charges that he had a sexual relationship with a teenager.
Redlands police reports did not say whether or not Kevin Patrick Kirkland, of Rancho Cucamonga, had the student in his Redlands High School class. He is scheduled to appear in San Bernardino Superior Court on Monday to face multiple charges on oral copulation with a person under 18.
Kirkland, who was taken into custody on Tuesday night in Gilbert, Ariz., waived extradition and was brought back to California.
Police started investigating into allegations made in April when district officials reported “possible inappropriate behavior by Kirkland toward another student,” according to a release by police spokesman Carl Baker.
Baker said the investigation at that time determined that the reported behavior was not criminal.
A new investigation was opened, however, when district adminitrators reported possible inappropriate behavior between Kirkland and another student.
Investigators determined that Kirkland, who is also the school’s golf coach, had engaged in multiple unlawful sexual encounters with the student from the time she was 16 until March 2016, when she turned 18.
Detective Kelli Bishop led a combined effort with authorities from the Gilbert police department, which took Kirkland into custody on a Ramey warrant, which is a lawful warrant taken directly to a judge bypassing the district attorney’s office.
The San Bernardino County District Attorney’s Office examined the evidence, filing five counts of oral copulation of a minor and one count of distributing harmful matter to a minor. Officials have not disclosed what harmful matter was distributed.
Once Kirkland waived extradition, Redlands detectives brought Kirkland to San Bernardino County where he was booked into West Valley Detention Center in Rancho Cucamonga with a bail reported at $2 million.
