A former Allan Hancock College instructor is facing criminal charges of committing sexual assault.
The San Luis Obispo County District Attorney’s Office accused Kevin Daily, 29—an engineer and one-time instructor of industrial technology at the Santa Maria community college—of rape by use of drugs and unlawfully manufacturing a firearm and an assault weapon, according to court documents.
According to Guy Galambos, Daily’s attorney, Daily no longer faces the gun charges.
“To be clear, all gun charges have been dismissed by a judge for lack of evidence that he committed any crime,” he said via email on June 1.
Filed by the DA’s Office on May 20, 2022, the original complaint said that Daily sexually assaulted a woman, identified as Jacqueline Doe, with the help of drugs on or around May 7 last year.
Now, the SLO County DA’s Office—with Deputy DA Danielle Baker prosecuting—and Daily are in the trial-setting conference phase.
According to Doe—the survivor cited in the criminal complaint who requested to remain anonymous—she and Daily had known each other since 2011 when they attended Hancock and Cal Poly together. She told the Sun that soon after her alleged assault, she contacted Hancock out of concern for public safety.
“He [Daily] was working at Hancock for six or seven months after the arrest,” she said on April 27. “I made an anonymous tip to the school. I contacted them and let them know that those kids are in danger.”
Lauren Milbourne, Hancock’s director of public affairs and communications, confirmed that Daily no longer works for the school. She declined to respond to further queries.
“The district does not comment on pending personnel matters,” Milbourne said via email. “The district follows state and federal law, district board policies and procedures, and its collective bargaining agreements in making all personnel decisions.”
In an account to the Sun, Doe shared her experience with Daily. It allegedly began May 7, 2022, when Daily and Doe left a friend’s dry wedding in Nipomo. She said that Daily asked her to hang out with him after the wedding. They decided to get drinks at Mason Bar in Arroyo Grande. Two other friends were supposed to join them but backed out at the last minute. Doe said she drank two shots of tequila and a cocktail. But she felt uneasy midway through her next drink.
“I don’t even remember drinking it halfway,” Doe said. “I think he put something in the first drink. I don’t remember what time I blacked out.”
Doe added that, according to the police and video footage, she and Daily were the last patrons, she threw up, and he carried her out of the bar. Daily allegedly brought her to her house in Nipomo from Mason Bar.
“I remember waking up and felt like I was only awake for two seconds,” she said. “He got on top of me, and I was completely numb.”
Doe lives with her mom and brother. She said both of them were in the house when Daily brought her home that night.
“My mom said she checked if I was home at 2 a.m., and then again at 3 a.m. but [my] door was closed, which was weird because the cat stays there and we usually leave the door open to let the cat in and out,” Doe said.
She said that neither her mom nor her brother noticed Daily come and go. The household had lost electricity the day before on May 6, which meant nothing was recorded on the security camera at the front of the home.
The following day, May 8, Doe said she woke up at roughly 9 a.m. and felt groggy.
“It’s a feeling I can’t explain to my body,” she said. “It’s like waking up after surgery. It’s weird.”
When she fully woke up at 3 p.m. the same day, the events of the previous night flooded in.
“I don’t remember my dress being taken off. I woke up in a T-shirt. Cops still haven’t found my Spandex and underwear,” Doe said.
She immediately called one of her friends and told her about what Daily reportedly did. After Doe’s friend encouraged her to get a sexual assault forensic exam done, another friend drove her to Marian Regional Medical Center in Santa Maria. She said she stayed there from 9 p.m. to 2 a.m., during which time hospital staff also recommended she undergo the test, and they called Santa Barbara County law enforcement. With Nipomo outside their jurisdiction, those officials referred her to the SLO County Sheriff’s Office the next day, May 9.
Doe completed her rape test in SLO that day. While she said she felt the staff wanted to listen to her, panic attacks would often grip her.
“I took a bunch of pills: like Plan B, for gonorrhea, for chlamydia,” Doe said. “I think I took like eight that day. I also took pills for two weeks to a month just to prevent HIV.”
Later on May 9, Daily allegedly contacted Doe by phone to ask if she was going to play tennis at night. Doe said she made an excuse and hung up quickly. She immediately contacted sheriff’s detectives.
On May 10, Daily reportedly called Doe again. This time, she said, the detectives listened in on the 45-minute call.
“The detectives wrote down everything I should ask,” Doe said. “It was really hard. I didn’t know what to say and ask.”
Doe added that with the detectives’ help she broached the subject of what happened the night of May 7. She then asked Daily a series of questions they recommended.
“Should I take a pregnancy test?” she said she asked him.
“Instead of saying yes or no, he said he went to a fertility doctor, and he said, ‘I have a low sperm count,’” Doe told the Sun. “He kept putting the blame on me.”
For three or four times, she said, she kept asking him if they had sex. Doe said eventually Daily confessed on the call that they did.
One of the questions she asked him: “Did I ever say yes?”
“He said no,” Doe said. “[He also said,] ‘I was hoping you wouldn’t remember, and the problem would go away on its own.’ I texted him right after, saying, ‘Don’t speak to me anymore.’”
Sheriff’s detectives soon arrived at Doe’s Nipomo home to take pictures of her room and the dress she was wearing the night of May 7. Doe said they arrested Daily later that month, and he was released on bail soon after.
She is currently being supported by SLO County’s Victim Witness Assistance Center.
Daily declined to comment on the allegations when the Sun contacted him.
Tony Cipolla, the SLO County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson, confirmed that the investigation is still active and said he couldn’t release any information that could compromise the case.
Reach New Times Staff Writer Bulbul Rajagopal, from the Sun’s sister paper, at [email protected].
