It all began unexpectedly. A student at Woodside High School in California was browsing Pornhub when the student recognized a schoolmate in one of the videos. But there was another person the student also knew: Dawn Giannini, a 49-year-old substitute teacher.
The student immediately informed the school principal, who contacted the San Mateo County Sheriff’s Office. The investigation established that Giannini had abused an underage female relative and had also recorded some of those encounters and posted the videos on pornographic websites. The young woman had never been Giannini’s student.
According to court records, the events had taken place between November 2014 and November 2015, mainly at a family home in Redwood City, with some incidents in Santa Cruz County. Giannini was arrested on October 18, 2018, and held on bail set at US$1,75 million.
On October 24 of that year, prosecutors filed 24 felony charges. Giannini initially pleaded not guilty to all of them, but later reached a deal with prosecutors and pleaded no contest to four charges. The rest were dropped as part of the agreement.
The sentence was handed down on January 17, 2020. San Mateo County Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Finigan sentenced her to 6 years and 8 months in state prison, in addition to ordering her to pay US$700 in restitution and prohibiting her from any contact with the victim for 10 years. She was also required to register as a sex offender.
Giannini had worked in education in the San Mateo area for more than a decade. She had been a special education aide and substitute teacher in the Redwood City school district, and had also worked at a school in Palo Alto. After her arrest, the school district said it would not rehire her and that, according to information provided by police, the events under investigation were unrelated to her work at a school.