LAUSD Administrator Pleads Guilty in Child Abuse Case

November 3, 2008
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contacts: Joe Scott, Director of Communications
Sandi Gibbons, Public Information Officer
Jane Robison, News Secretary
Shiara Dávila, Assistant PIO
(213) 974-3525

LOS ANGELES – An assistant principal of a South Gate high school accused of failing to report information about a sexual encounter between a teacher and student pleaded guilty today, the District Attorney’s Office announced.

Deputy District Attorney Juliet Schmidt of the Public Integrity Division said Maria Sotomayor, 36, pleaded guilty before Los Angeles Superior Court Commissioner Michael Garcia to failing to report child abuse.

Sotomayor was sentenced to one year of probation and 100 hours of community service. The school's principal Jesus Angulo, 36, pleaded no contest in an open plea to the court to one count of failure to report child abuse on Sept. 3.

The charges against Angulo and Sotomayor, both of Downey, stemmed from an incident in March 2007 when a substitute teacher allegedly had sex with a female student.

The substitute teacher, Jesus Salvador Saenz, 31, was charged in March with one felony count of unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor. The defendant, charged in case No. TA095986, was held to answer to the charge on Aug. 28 following a preliminary hearing. Deputy District Attorney Simone Shay of Compton Branch Office has been assigned to prosecute the case.

Angulo and Sotomayor allegedly learned of the offense seven months later, but failed to report the information as required by law and Los Angeles Unified School District policy.

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