School Counselor Found Not Guilty Of Molesting Coral Springs Student

Follow CBSMIAMI.COM: Facebook | Twitter

CORAL SPRINGS (CBSMiami) -- After three days of testimony, a jury has found a man not guilty of sexually molesting a young girl while he was a school counselor in Coral Springs.

The jury came to the decision late afternoon on Thursday June 30th.

Michael Jones, 25, was working as an after school employee at Forest Hills Elementary School in 2011 when he was accused of touching three girls inappropriately.

Prosecutors argued in court that Jones befriended the alleged victims in order to prey upon them at a later time.

"Is it a surprise that this man got her to like him, to trust him, to want to be near him, so that he could put himself in the position one day to do what he did to her," asked prosecutor Kerrie Harper, in court Thursday.

On the stand, Jones denied anything happened between him and the girls, who were about 8 years old at the time of the incident.

Jones' lawyer claimed that the girls all made up the events to profit off the matter after their parents sued in civil court.

"What do they all have in common," asked defense attorney Jose Reyes. "Hundreds, hundreds, hundreds of thousands of dollars."

During the trial, the jury was shown an interrogation video that Reyes called a coerced confession.

"What did you say when you did that to her," asked an investigator sitting across from Jones in an interrogation room. "Do you remember?"

Jones replied, "No."

"Why would you do that," the officer questioned.

"I don't know," Jones said.

When Jones was then asked how the girl's pants came down, he replied, "I asked her to pull them down." Jones lowered his head and said, "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have done that."

This, however, was deemed inconsequential. The jury sided in favor of Jones and helped clear his name of any wrongdoing in this one case.

However, Jones will remain in jail. He is still facing two more accusers who said he touched them inappropriately.