A former teacher charged with engaging in sex acts with a minor pleaded no contest to several charges on Wednesday, Oct. 30, according to San Mateo County District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe.

Redwood City resident Dawn Giannini, 50, faces up to six years and eight months in prison, according to the DA's office. She pleaded no contest to four of the 19 felony charges she faced, which include lewd acts with a child and sexual penetration with a foreign object.

Giannini was arrested on Oct. 18, 2018, after a Woodside High School student alerted the school's principal of several online videos of a female classmate engaged in sexual acts with Giannini, Wagstaffe said.

The DA's office initially charged Giannini with 24 felony counts on Oct. 24, 2018. "My deputy DA dismissed the other charges as part of the negotiated plea bargain," Wagstaffe told The Almanac this week.

The videos were shot from 2014 to 2015 in Redwood City and Santa Cruz County when the victim was 16 or 17 years old, according to the DA's office. The girl is related to Giannini.

Giannini taught at schools in Redwood City and Palo Alto. She was substitute teaching when she was arrested, Wagstaffe said. He did not know the name of the school where she most recently worked.

Judge Jeffrey Finigan will sentence Giannini on Jan. 17 at 9 a.m., according to the DA's office.

Giannini remains in custody on $1.75 million bail.

-