Details emerge in teacher, juvenile inmates case

New details emerged Friday regarding the timeline of events which ended earlier this week with a veteran Merced County teacher in jail for alleged “inappropriate touching” with two juvenile hall inmates.

Allegations of misconduct against Marilouise Hawks first surfaced in October when she was allegedly caught passing notes between two teenage inmates prohibited from contacting one another at the Iris Garrett Juvenile Justice Correctional Complex. The more serious allegations involving Hawks and juvenile inmates came to light a month later, according to Scott Ball, Merced County’s chief probation officer.

Hawks, 64, a former president of the Merced County Office Teachers Association, was arrested Tuesday by the Merced County Sheriff’s Department on suspicion of soliciting a minor for lewd purposes, criminal street gang participation, conspiracy with a prisoner and delivery of a cellphone to an inmate. She posted bail and was released from custody a few hours later.

Hawks, as of Friday, had not been formally charged with any crime by the Merced County District Attorney’s Office. Sheriff’s detectives are still investigating the case, Sgt. Delray Shelton said.

The alleged note passing was caught on camera Oct. 14 and prompted probation officials to remove Hawks from her role as a juvenile hall teacher, Ball said.

It’s unclear exactly what was written in the note Hawks allegedly carried between the two inmates, and the content may have been relatively harmless, Ball acknowledged.

“But it’s strictly against policy to allow these types of hidden, secretive communications between minors in custody for security reasons,” Ball said. “Those communications are contraband, obviously not to the same level as weapons or drugs, but they’re still contraband.”

Ball said there are many reasons some inmates are strictly prohibited from communicating while in custody.

“They could be co-defendants in a case, they could’ve gotten into trouble together before, or could just simply be at different learning levels, but it’s absolutely against policy,” Ball said.

Hawks was transferred to a teaching position at Los Banos Valley Community School after the alleged note passing.

Then, some time late on Nov. 14, authorities learned of allegations that Hawks inappropriately touched male juvenile inmates, the probation department confirmed. The school district was notified of the accusations against Hawks and she was placed on paid administrative leave Nov. 17, authorities confirmed.

“As soon as we were notified of the allegations, we met, had a discussion and placed her on administrative leave that same day,” said Nathan Quevedo, spokesman for the Merced County Office Of Education.

Both juvenile inmates were 17 at the time the alleged abuse occurred. One of the teens was in custody on suspicion of murder, and the other had been arrested on suspicion of robbery, the Sheriff’s Department confirmed.

Hawks is suspected of smuggling cellphones to the juvenile inmates, passing letters and providing them with money. She is also accused of posting gang-related photographs to social media accounts linked to the juveniles in question. Whether any sexual intercourse occurred between Hawks and the minors remains under investigation, deputies said.

“The investigation is still open and there are many aspects of the case we cannot comment on at this time,” Shelton said.

Hawks was first hired by the Office of Education in 1999 and had been teaching a variety of subjects at the juvenile hall for the past nine years.

Ball on Friday said the department stands by the safety protocols in place to protect juvenile inmates at the county facility, but said his office still intends to examine what occurred to determine whether additional measures should be considered.

“Wherever there’s any type of critical incident we always take a step back and look to see if there’s anything we could be doing better,” Ball said.

This story was originally published January 30, 2015 at 4:20 PM with the headline "Details emerge in teacher, juvenile inmates case."