Former Daly City school music teacher to be sentenced for sexual relationship with student

DALY CITY, Calif. (KGO) -- A former Daly City public school music teacher will be sentenced next month after pleading no contest to having a sexual relationship with a former 14-year-old student.

This former Robertson Intermediate School student asked that we not show her face. She is the "Jane Doe" in a pending criminal and civil case in Daly City.

She says Marcus Dyson was her 5th grade music teacher in the Bayshore Elementary School District. They met when she was just 10 years old. By 14, she says their relationship became sexual.

"He made me swear not to tell anyone," said Doe.

Doe says the interactions happened at school.

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"In his music classroom which was on stage in the school auditorium. He got an apartment in Daly City and things would happen there as well," said Doe.

"He groomed her and coerced her into this relationship," said Kara Szkotak, San Mateo County Deputy District Attorney.

Szkotak says Daly City police brought her office the case in November of 2023, approximately nine years after Doe says Dyson kissed her for the first time. She says he continued to abuse her for four years.

With so much time having passed, when Doe came forward as a young adult, police worked with her to help get Dyson's confession.

"The only way was for me to call him and get him to admit on the phone that this happened," said Doe.

"The purpose of these phone calls is for the victim to confront her abuser and see if he'll confess, and he ultimately did in this case," said Szkotak.

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"It is one of the better phone calls that we have gotten in cases like this," she continued.

"It sounded like he still believes that it was true love and that what we had was genuine and okay," said Doe.

The DA's office ultimately negotiated a plea deal with Dyson, who pleaded no contest to a reduced list of charges including six counts of felony sexual intercourse with a 14 year old child and eight counts of felony oral copulation on a child under 18 years. Dyson is scheduled to be sentenced next month.

His criminal defense attorney told the I-Team, "Given the pending legal proceedings, we have no comment at this time."

Szkotak says at sentencing Dyson could get anything from probation to 10 years, 8 months. He will also have to register as a sex offender.

"If he had pled to every single charge in this case, his top would have been 25 years," said Szkotak.

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"I feel like there's no amount of time that could make up what he's done to me," said Doe.

"My heart is with any other potential victims," she continued.

"We did have reason to believe that there were other victims, but ultimately in looking at the facts of those cases we were not able to bring additional charges," said Szkotak.

Beyond the criminal case, Doe has filed a civil complaint against Bayshore Elementary School District and Dyson.

"I definitely think that the school needs to take some sort of accountability for all of this," said Doe.

According to the civil complaint and Doe's civil attorney Elana Jacobs, Doe believes that Dyson did not have a college degree and/or a teaching credential.

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"The school district kind of didn't do what it needed to do at the onset," said Jacobs.

"Some of the things are for example making sure that there was an adequate background check, that he was getting training before he was in the classroom, that he was being monitored, supervised, that the kids were being adequately monitored and supervised," she continued.

In an emailed statement to the I-Team, Bayshore Elementary School District writes, "To protect the due process and privacy rights of everyone involved, it is District policy to not comment on pending litigation."

Doe plans to read a victim impact statement at Dyson's sentencing.

"I'm doing better than I was back then, but still not as well as I hope to be," said Doe.

Dyson remains out of custody on $500,000 bail bond. His sentencing was supposed to be Friday but got moved to next month due to a court scheduling conflict. The San Mateo County District Attorney's Office says if there are other victims out there, they would like to speak with them.

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