A longtime Marin County educator arrested in a child molestation probe has been charged, but not with the felony count for which he was arrested.
Robert Patrick Raines, who retired this summer as superintendent of the Shoreline Unified School District, is scheduled to be arraigned on Aug. 11 in Marin County Superior Court.
Raines, 67, of Petaluma was booked on June 8 on suspicion of lewd and lascivious acts against a child younger than 14. He was released on bail while prosecutors decided whether charge him.
The district attorney’s office filed the misdemeanor count after a five-week review. Under the language of the charge, the crime involves those who “unlawfully annoy or molest” a child younger than 18.
The criminal complaint identifies the alleged victim as a child younger than 10.
“Mr. Raines looks forward to his full exoneration,” his defense attorney, Charles Dresow, said Sunday. “He was arrested for a felony he did not commit after a rushed and incomplete investigation. He is innocent of the misdemeanor filed and denies all of the allegations against him.”
District Attorney Lori Frugoli declined to comment on the charging decision.
Raines will have to register as a sex offender if he is convicted, according to the prosecution complaint.
The investigation started on June 1 after the school district learned of the alleged conduct and reported it to authorities. The Marin County Sheriff’s Office, which investigated the case, has released few details about the case and has not said where the crime allegedly happened.
A spokesman for the sheriff’s department said Sunday that investigators have no more information to release.
Raines, who started his career as a teacher in 1981, retired at the end of June after five years at the Shoreline district.
Before joining the district, he spent eight years at the Alexander Valley Union School District in Healdsburg, where he worked as superintendent and principal. He has also been principal at West Marin School, principal at Wright School in Santa Rosa and superintendent and principal at Wilmar Union School District in Petaluma.
