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A former Cal Poly administrator was sentenced to 364 days in jail and three years of probation on Tuesday after he was found guilty of committing lewd acts with his 6-year-old step-granddaughter in a hot tub.
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On May 18, former Cal Poly associate vice president and former Bike SLO County executive director Richard Ellison, 69, pleaded no contest to child molestation for an incident that occurred on March 30, 2025, at his Arroyo Grande home.
A no contest plea acts the same as a guilty plea without admitting fault.
The conditions of Ellison’s sentence include lifetime registration as a sex offender and 10 years of a no-contact order with the victim, as requested by the victim’s family.
At an April 2 preliminary hearing, District Attorney’s Office investigator Julia Tatarian testified from interviews with the victim’s parents that Ellison had accompanied his step-granddaughter into the hot tub at her request after he had “a couple of glasses of wine” and dozed off at a family dinner.
Later that night, the girl told her mother that “Grandpa told me that we have a secret,” Tatarian said.
The girl had asked Ellison to show her his private parts, and he had “pulled down his pants and exposed his penis to her” while in the hot tub, Tatarian said. The girl told her father she had touched his penis with two fingers, but Ellison did not touch her, Tatarian said.
Victim’s parents speak of incident’s ‘long-term impact’
At the sentencing, a victim advocate spoke on behalf of the girl’s parents, who wrote a letter to share how the incident had impacted their family.
The parents said they had both sought therapy to “sort through overwhelming waves of anger, sadness, anxiety and grief.”
“While we are doing our best to move forward and maintain the sense of normal life, this situation has added a heavy layer of tension to our home,” the parents wrote. “As the legal process has progressed, there has been considerable uncertainty and distress over the possibility of her being forced to continue to relive and retell the details of her trauma.”
The parents emphasized that their greatest concern is how the incident will continue to affect their child as she grows up.
“Because our daughter is still so young, she doesn’t fully grasp the weight of what occurred,” the parents wrote. “Our biggest fear is not just how she feels today, but what the long-term impact will be as she grows up, processes this with a more mature understanding, and realizes what happened to her. We simply don’t know yet how this experience will shape her sense of safety, trust, or confidence as she gets older.”
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The parents concluded by asking Judge Jesse Marino to consider “the full scope of the situation” and ensure that their child feels “supported and protected moving forward.”
District Attorney Dan Dow, the prosecutor in the case, spoke after the victim statement about the “purpose” of the sentencing, arguing that the goal should be both deterring the individual from a repeat offense and sending a message to the community.
Dow acknowledged Ellison’s history of involvement in the SLO community but emphasized the importance of accountability for his actions with his step-granddaughter.
“The sentence, I would argue, Your Honor, needs to be one that the entire community would say is appropriate for this kind of act,” Dow said at the sentencing. “We don’t judge Mr. Ellison on his good things that he’s done today, but Your Honor is in the position of issuing a sentence that appropriately takes account of this violation of this young girl who trusted him, who was related by marriage to him.”
Dow asked for Ellison to be sentenced to 364 days in County Jail — the full term contemplated under a previously negotiated agreement between the parties.
Defense attorney Carrie Fusco, who represented Ellison, requested at the sentencing that the court impose 180 days in County Jail. Fusco said that Ellison has been seeing a therapist since May 5, 2025, who submitted a report indicating that he has a less than 1% chance of reoffending.
Marino sentenced Ellison to the 364 days requested by Dow and agreed to Fusco’s request for Ellison to be taken into custody on Aug. 11.
The pre-sentence report submitted by the county’s chief probation officer recommended that the court also impose restitution of a minimum of $75,000 for “non-economic losses including, but not limited to, psychological harm.”
Marino scheduled the restitution hearing for Oct. 6.
This story was originally published July 28, 2026 at 1:19 PM with the headline “Former Cal Poly administrator sentenced for molesting girl in hot tub.”
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