Sacramento area teacher accused of sex abuse by students in prison

An accused former school teacher who spent four hours in a standoff with sheriff’s deputies Friday has been booked into the Sacramento County Jail and will return to court Tuesday.

After the standoff with deputies, Steven Richard Kester, 78, was treated at a hospital for injuries over the weekend and booked into jail Sunday evening, where he was being held without bail, according to the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office.

Kester is accused of sexually assaulting students in the Folsom Cordova Unified School District. He worked as a full-time teacher in the school district for more than 30 years until he retired and worked there as a substitute teacher until May 2021, when district officials learned of the investigation that led to the ex-teacher’s arrest the following month.

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The former teacher is facing criminal charges for alleged sexual abuse. Kester is also charged in a civil lawsuit filed on behalf of four former Folsom Cordova Unified students who allege the teacher groomed and sexually assaulted them while they were his students.

Kester, who was out on his own recognizance pending charges in the criminal case, was scheduled to appear in Sacramento Superior Court Friday morning but failed to show up without notifying his attorney or the court.

Jay Dyer, Kester’s attorney, became concerned about his client’s well-being and asked sheriff’s deputies to check Kester. Judge Satnam S. Rattu also revoked the court’s order for Kester to remain free on his own recognizance and issued a warrant for his arrest.

The same morning, officers found Kester at his apartment in the 9200 block of Madison Avenue, near Blue Oak Drive on the border of Orangevale and Fair Oaks. Sheriff’s officials said Kester pointed a gun at himself and stabbed himself with a knife as officers attempted to de-escalate the situation.

Kester returned to his apartment and refused to come out until approximately 1:15 p.m., when he surrendered without further incident. He was placed on a stretcher and taken to a hospital by ambulance.

The former school teacher will appear in court Tuesday at 3 p.m. for a hearing in the child abuse criminal case, court records show. In the criminal case, he is accused of committing lewd and lascivious acts with a child under the age of 14. Jail records do not indicate he will face any new charges based on Friday’s standoff with deputies.

The civil child abuse case is scheduled for a case management conference on June 27 in Sacramento Superior Court. Prosecutors allege serial sexual assault that began in the 1990s, with the most recent case of abuse occurring in 2021 at Cordova Meadows Elementary School.