Editor’s note: This story contains descriptions of an attempted suicide and child sexual abuse that readers may find disturbing.
WEST PALM BEACH — Jurors took just under two hours to convict a former teacher of sexually abusing his 16-year-old student but acquit him of aiding in her suicide attempt.
Damian Conti, 37, maintained that his relationship with the girl was never sexual. The former AP English teacher turned down 10- and 25-year plea offers and now faces up to 120 years in prison for four counts of unlawful sexual activity with a student.
The jury’s verdict followed four days of graphic evidence and testimony presented almost entirely by prosecutors. Assistant State Attorneys Alexa Ruggiero and Nicole Corring used phone records, surveillance footage and witness testimony to portray Conti as a predator — one who plied a vulnerable girl with gifts and attention, then drove her to attempt suicide once his crimes came to light.
“She went on TikTok to find out how to tie a noose,” Corring said. “All the while, Damian Conti Googles ‘criminal defense attorney,’ ‘statutory rape.’ “
Jurors sifted through internet records showing Conti had searched penalties for child sex crimes shortly before his arrest. They read text messages in which the teacher described intimate acts with the teenager, complimented the taste of her body and discussed the curve of his own anatomy.
They heard the student, now 18, recall the charismatic, attentive and touchy way Conti acted around her, the visits he made to her workplace after school and the moment their encounters turned sexual. At Ruggiero’s prompting, she walked jurors through each place she said Conti touched her, and where she touched him.
“I remember my legs being very shaky,” she said of the first occasion. “On the drive home, I was very upset.”
Meanwhile, Conti’s attorney questioned the thoroughness of the investigation and the accuracy of the student’s testimony. Assistant Public Defender Lily Boehmer said the girl had ulterior motives — including her family’s civil lawsuit against SouthTech — for testifying against the man she once said she loved.
Rather than present her own evidence, Boehmer zeroed in on what prosecutors’ lacked: dates, locations and explicit detail of each sex act as well as the DNA to corroborate it. The girl described countless sexual encounters in the back seat of her car, but detectives never swabbed the space for DNA.
“They ‘sexted’ about things that they never did,” the lawyer said, pointing to select messages the girl testified were mere fantasy. “They pushed the boundary, but they never crossed it.”
Conti’s recorded confession was harder to explain. Played aloud for jurors, he described the way he and the teen “just connected,” first over school email, then text and Instagram, then in the back seat of her car.
“She was really happy that someone showed her care,” he said. “She doesn’t get a lot of affection at home.”
He discussed the struggles he’d had at his own home — “I wasn’t happy with my marriage. Being a father’s been hard” — and the reasons he believed the girl attempted suicide: fear of her parents, he said, and “the guilt of destroying my life.”
Conti initially said he had sex with the girl once but, after prodding from the detective, amended the answer to a “couple” of times. He said he used protection, and that the girl was always in charge, always consenting.
Under Florida law, the age of consent is 18. Those who are 16 and 17 can legally consent only to a partner younger than 24.
Boehmer called Conti’s confession a “last-ditch effort” to stop the teen from hurting herself.
“It might not have been the most logical, but that’s what happened,” she said. “He was under stress.”
Jurors unconvinced Conti wanted girl dead
Though she didn’t persuade jurors to acquit Conti of child sex abuse, Boehmer succeeded in overcoming the allegation of attempted assisted suicide. The charge stemmed from Conti’s actions hours before his arrest on Feb. 6, 2024.
A student discovered inappropriate texts between Conti and the girl that morning and reported them to SouthTech Academy administrators. Then-principal Eileen Turenne, who announced her retirement days later, suspended Conti from the campus of the Boynton Beach school and sent the girl home without notifying her parents.
The girl testified that she left the school feeling scared and anxious. Conti’s panic compounded her own.
“I was looking to him for a sense of direction, but I couldn’t find that direction,” she said.
She told him to meet her at a Home Depot near Lake Worth Beach.
There, she told Conti she wanted both of them to kill themselves. Jurors watched surveillance-camera footage of the girl buying 30 feet of rope and 15 feet of chain while Conti stood beside her. She testified that Conti told her repeatedly not to go through with it.
Nevertheless, Conti held her car keys while she bought the rope, then handed them back to her after she finished paying. He remained in the Home Depot parking lot while she drove away. After a seven-minute call to his therapist and a four-minute call to the girl, Conti called 911.
Prosecutors said Conti deliberately waited before he called 911 in hopes that the girl would be dead before deputies found her. She nearly was. Jurors watched body-camera footage of the rescue and revival behind a nearby church off Hypoluxo Road.
Boehmer emphasized the fact that the girl chose to attempt suicide alone, that Conti discouraged her from doing it, and that if he truly wanted her dead, he wouldn’t have called 911.
Jurors weren’t the only ones persuaded by the argument. Circuit Judge Howard Coates considered dismissing the charge altogether ahead of closing arguments and said he would decide only after the verdict was announced.
It came at 4:30 p.m. on June 30. Beyond a clenched jaw, Conti did not visibly react.
The teen was not present. Victoria Mesa-Estrada, an attorney who represents the girl and her family in the civil lawsuit against SouthTech Academy, called the verdict “a clear affirmation that justice was partially served and accountability upheld.”
“This is a step in the right direction to permit this young woman to heal from this trauma that she suffered at the hands of her teacher,” she wrote. “However this is far from over.”
SouthTech Academy knew of Conti’s predatory tendencies and still failed to take action, the attorney wrote. She promised to continue pursuing justice on the girl’s behalf.
Coates will sentence Conti to prison on Aug. 15. The teen girl, who collapsed and wept on the courtroom floor after she finished testifying, will have an opportunity to address Conti directly.
If you or someone you know has been a victim of sexual assault, the Palm Beach County Victim Services and Rape Crisis Center can help. Reach their helpline at 561-833-7273, or toll-free at 866-891-7273.
The 211 community helpline and crisis hotline also provides suicide prevention, crisis intervention, information, assessment and referral to community services for people of all ages.
Hannah Phillips covers criminal justice at The Palm Beach Post. You can reach her at hphillips@pbpost.com. Help support our journalism and subscribe today.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Florida teacher found guilty of sex crimes against student, cleared in her suicide attempt
Reporting by Hannah Phillips, Palm Beach Post / Palm Beach Post
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