Former Cal Poly admin convicted of lewd acts with 6-year-old in a hot tub
A former Cal Poly administrator was found guilty of molesting his 6-year-old step-granddaughter in a hot tub after pleading no contest on Thursday.
On Aug. 27, the San Luis Obispo County District Attorney’s Office charged former Cal Poly associate vice president and former Bike SLO County executive director Richard Edward Ellison, 69, with committing a lewd and lascivious act on a child under 14 on March 30, 2025, at his Arroyo Grande home.
He had worked at the university from 1998 to 2005 and again from 2014 to 2015 as associate vice president of development.
The child in question was his young step-granddaughter, who he exposed himself to in a hot tub.
Ellison was headed toward trial, but his no contest plea resulted instead in an immediate conviction. A no contest plea acts the same as a guilty plea without admitting fault.
He now faces up to a year minus a day in SLO County Jail with three years of probation, as well as lifetime registration as a sex offender.
Former Cal Poly admin exposed himself in hot tub, testimony shows
During an April 2 preliminary hearing, DA’s Office investigator Julia Tatarian testified from interviews with the victim’s parents that Ellison had taken his step-granddaughter — who was visiting SLO County with her mother from Colorado — 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.
When the girl asked Ellison to show her his private parts, he “pulled down his pants and exposed his penis to her” while in the hot tub, Tatarian said. The girl told her father she also touched his penis with two fingers, but Ellison did not touch her, Tatarian said.
After being confronted by the mother the next day, Ellison wrote a letter to the family apologizing and taking accountability specifying what he did, District Attorney Dan Dow said.
“I made a mistake, one that will live with me for a long time,” Ellison wrote in the letter, a redacted copy of which Dow shared with The Tribune. “Since that night I have been overwhelmed with sorrow, regret and a deep sadness. I would never want to hurt (the victim).”
The girl was also interviewed by a child forensic investigator in Colorado, which the SLO County Sheriff’s Office Deputy Kara Dickel reviewed for the investigation.
During that interview, she described Ellison’s penis as “sticking up” in the hot tub as compared to a previous time she had seen his genitals when she hid under his bed while he changed.
The girl told the child forensic investigator that she had also asked Ellison to show her his private parts then, to which he replied that he would show her later in the hot tub, Dickel said.
What happens next?
The wide-ranging charge of committing a lewd and lascivious act on a child carries a maximum sentence of eight years in prison, but Dow, who prosecuted the case, said the crime is on the lower-end of the spectrum given Ellison did not initiate physical contact with the child.
“Any sexual offense with a child is a grievously serious matter,” Dow said in a statement sent to media. “The conduct that can be charged under this specific crime is very wide-ranging including less serious and much more serious conduct than what occurred in this case.”
However, the crime is considered a violent offense under California’s Three Strikes Law, which would double Ellison’s sentence on a repeat offense.
“While we can’t predict the future, this conduct is often considered grooming conduct,” Dow said, adding that there is a much higher chance of this behavior becoming more damaging in the future.
He added in a later statement to The Tribune that the plea holds Ellison accountable while avoiding further trauma that could be inflicted on the child victim in a trial, which would have required her to testify and be cross examined by the defense.
“I am pleased that the defendant took legal accountability for his actions after having previously expressed his remorse in a letter to the victim’s family less than three weeks after committing the offense,” Dow said.
Ellison is scheduled to be sentenced on July 28.
This story was originally published May 18, 2026 at 11:20 AM.
