OAKLAND >> Prosecutors have dismissed the child sex abuse case against a former teacher at Oakland School of the Arts, ending a saga that spanned years and included a seven-figure lawsuit settlement against the school.

Jeremy Taylor had been charged with committing a lewd act upon a child 14 years or younger, along with enhancements alleging “substantial sexual contact,” as well as selecting a vulnerable victim and being in a position of trust. But in a March court hearing, prosecutors dismissed the case, citing lack of corroborating evidence beyond the single alleged victim’s complaint.

The case was dismissed amid an ongoing dispute with the school, which had been ordered by a judge to explain why it was lagging in compliance with a subpoena to produce records related to Taylor and the alleged victim. On March 4, the day the order to show cause was to be heard, the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office dismissed the case.

Taylor’s lawyer, Liz Grossman, didn’t respond to multiple attempts to reach her by phone. She told KQED that Taylor “has always been steadfast in his innocence and is grateful that justice has finally been obtained against these false and ruinous allegations.”

The alleged victim, known only as Jane Doe in court records, spoke at the March 4 hearing, referring to Taylor as a sexual abuser who “brainwashed” her and that she still struggles with trauma, self-abuse and trust issues to this day.

“I desire the unhealthy bond we once had. I loved this man, smiled, and was genuinely okay with him raping me over and over and over again,” Doe said in court. “I hate myself that I wanted to be with him in that way and make him happy, make him proud. I hate myself that I still care about him.”

Prosecutors allege that Taylor molested the victim on an ongoing basis from September 2004 to September 2005, when Taylor was 29-30 years old. Police didn’t start investigating him until last year, when the alleged victim confided in a friend what had happened, and she called the Oakland Police Department.

In her March 4 statement, the girl said that she resented her friend for coming forward to police and hadn’t wanted the case to be prosecuted. She said her friend’s “betrayal and abandonment still breaks me to this day,” and that she’d been negatively affected by media coverage of the case.

Taylor remained with the school for years after the alleged abuse and was fired in 2022, after a third-party investigation found he had “engaged in grooming behavior with multiple students and had a sexual relationship with one student,” KQED reported. The investigators used a lower legal standard than jurors are given for criminal trials.

During the course of the case, Grossman requested a wide range of documentation, related to school records, the alleged victim’s mental health, her email communication with Taylor and her hospital records, according to court filings. A judge approved almost all of them.

In December, Alameda County Judge David Pereda ordered the charter school to demonstrate “why it was not possible” to produce a litany of additional records, including which classes Taylor taught, administrator emails, and copies of everything the school had turned over to Oakland police. The records had been subpoenaed months earlier, the judge’s order said.

In a separate case, the girl sued OSA and received a seven-figure settlement, KQED reported.

Taylor had been warned by staff for having private meetings with students during the time of the alleged abuse, according to court records.

Police said in court filings that they talked to students who said he would offer their peers coffee or hugs, and one saw the name of a student written in condensation inside Taylor’s vehicle.

In May 2004, a school administrator told Taylor to stop counseling students in private meetings. Taylor responded with a memo stating he sought to give students a safe space to talk about family issues, eating disorders, self-harm behavior and the like, according to police.

This warning was repeated in September 2005, after a student emailed Taylor seeking to meet with him for lunch and stating she missed him. Two weeks after that, the mother of another student — the same girl whose name was allegedly written in condensation on the window of Taylor’s car — pulled her out of his math class. When the girl apologized, Taylor allegedly responded that she and him could discuss it but he, “will insist, however, that it be in person,” followed by a smiley face emoji. The following year, he emailed the same girl asking for pictures of her to “properly wallpaper (his) room,” according to police.

The school, which teaches students from sixth to 12th grades, released a public statement saying it strives to “ensure a safe, supportive, and discrimination-free learning environment in which students can thrive.”