Judge John Feeney has dismissed four felony child-molestation charges against Gary Frankland Landergen, a former Fortuna High School math teacher and track coach accused by three teenage girls.

After hearing hours of preliminary-hearing testimony from Fortuna police Detective Ryan Richardson, who interviewed the three Jane Does, Feeney ruled there was not enough evidence to hold Landergen to answer for lewd or lascivious behavior with a child aged 14 or 15.

Landergen.

Landergen, 57, was held to answer on two misdemeanor counts of sexual battery and two misdemeanor counts of annoying or molesting a child.

“The court does not condone the alleged actions of Mr. Landergen,” Feeney said, noting that Landergen was in a position of trust at the high school.

“However, (his behavior) does not constitute felonious conduct.”

One of the girls told Detective Richardson that Landergen put his arm around her shoulders, pulled her close, said “I love you” and then slid his hand down to grab her butt.

When Richardson spoke with Landergen after his arrest, he adamantly denied the butt-grabbing. The detective then told him, falsely, that the act was caught on video. Landergen insisted he didn’t recall it, “but if it’s on camera it must have happened.”

Another girl said that at a track meet in Redding, Landergen hugged her and then patted her butt twice as she was leaving. She described it as a “good-bye pat” or “a little smack on my ass.” There were no witnesses to that alleged incident.

And a third girl reported that, while the track team was practicing stretches in the high school gym, Landergen touched the back of her thigh and the side of her butt. She said “Hey! Hey! Stop!”

But the student who had been her stretching partner said Landergen was just walking around the gym, making sure the girls were stretching properly.

Feeney, when making his ruling Tuesday afternoon, noted none of the allegations involved “skin-to-skin contact.”

In addition to the complaints about inappropriate touching, there were many reports about Landergen’s behavior in the math classroom. Students said he was fine during the first semester, but in the second semester he frequently told off-color jokes and made sexual comments.

“He began making inappropriate jokes of a sexual nature,” Richardson testified under questioning by Deputy District Attorney Whitney Timm.

Once, one of the girls reported, Landergen overheard a male student say the word “fucking.” He allegedly responded “I don’t know why you all look so sad. I’m always happy when I’m fucking.”

Other alleged comments:

Wrestlers are good in bed “because they know all the moves.”

“I would fuck anyone as long as I had someone to do it with.”

When a boy in class mentioned “wet dreams,” Landergen reportedly said “Oh yeah, I have wet dreams all the time.”

If the subject of “length” came up during math class, “He would turn it into a comment about penis size.”

Landergen’s defense attorney, Conflict Counsel Meagan O’Connell, noted that the three alleged victims talked to each other before any of them spoke to police.

Richardson testified that when he asked Landergen why the girls would make false accusations, “He told me that because he had made them run barefoot around the field.”

During cross-examination, O’Connell pointed out there were no adult witnesses to any of the alleged incidents.

“Correct,” Richardson said.

Asked if any of the girls believed Landergen was touching them for a sexual purpose, the detective said “None of them indicated that.”

Landergen must still deal with the misdemeanor charges. His trial is scheduled for May 1.

Landergen remains out of custody on bail. He posted bond when arrested in April 2022, and again a few months later when his bail was raised and he was re-arrested. The first bond was exonerated; the second was not.

Landergen was accompanied to court by three male supporters.

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