Former North Babylon High School teacher Danny Cuesta went out of his way to hide his sexual affair with a 15-year-old student from other students and faculty, but he did not have to hide it from the girl's own mother - she not only approved of the relationship but helped him cover it up, Suffolk prosecutors said yesterday.
"They didn't meet at a party or at a club or at a bar," Assistant District Attorney Rosamaria Abbate told a jury in her opening remarks at the Coram man's trial. "They met at school ... where children are supposed to learn; where they're supposed to be safe."
Newsday is not naming the girl, who is now 18, because she says she was raped.
Cuesta's attorney, Laurence Silverman of Huntington, said his client was being framed by the teen and her father, who Silverman said hoped to sue the school district, which has suspended Cuesta. He noted that the teen's mother is expected to testify in support of Cuesta, 30.
Silverman called the 28-count indictment - which includes charges of third-degree rape and endangering the welfare of a child - "a case of no good deed going unpunished."
The girl testified yesterday that she met Cuesta during her sophomore year at North Babylon, when one of her friends had him as her Spanish teacher.
Before long, their conversations turned personal, leading to one afternoon when Cuesta had the girl follow him to an office to help make copies, she said.
"He looked around to see if anyone was there," she said. "Then he pulled me in close ... and kissed me" and made her touch his genitals.
The relationship soon became serious and lasted until her senior year last year, she said. They regularly had sex at a Sayville motel and spoke of marriage, she said.
She said Cuesta came up with the idea to become the girl's mentor "as an excuse to cover up our relationship so no teachers or students could actually see what was going on." Before long, Cuesta was a regular at the girl's home - celebrating his birthday there and even referring to the girl's mother as "mom," she said.
When the mother found out they were having sex, she gave her blessing - and even helped hide it from the girl's father, prosecutors said. One night, the woman helped her daughter and Cuesta sneak into her home late at night, "winked at us both and told us to have a good night," the girl said.
Her mother did not return a call for comment yesterday. She has not been charged with any crime.
After denying the relationship to school officials and police, who questioned her at her father's bidding, the girl told police in September of last year that Cuesta raped her.
