Valentine

JOHNSON, Acting P.J.

Appellant, Randy Alan Valentine (Valentine) was convicted following jury trial of twenty-one counts [1] of sex offenses against two young victims, N. C. and V. R. Valentine was thereafter sentenced to a total term of 81 years and four months in state prison and given a $15,000 fine. This appeal followed and raises the issue whether threatened "hardship" remains a form of "duress" justifying convictions for forcible oral copulation and forcible penetration by a foreign object. We conclude it does not and reverse the convictions for those offenses.

Both of the victims, N. C. and V. R., attended eighth grade during the 1990-91 school year at Samuel Gompers Middle School. Appellant was the girls' English teacher that year. Both girls spent a lot of time "hanging out" with appellant in his classroom during the school year. Appellant began physically molesting N. C. before Christmas 1990 and in March 1991. The sexual nature of the molestation increased from rubbing, hugging and kissing to the fondling of N. C.'s breasts by the end of the school term.

That summer, appellant arranged a special summer session class solely for N. C. and V. R., ostensibly to prepare…