Miguel Angel Pineda, now 29, agreed to a plea deal on Aug. 20 in which he admitted to three felony counts of forcible lewd acts upon a child. Pineda had previously faced nine felony counts of lewd and lascivious acts on a child younger than 14.
The lewd acts occurred while Pineda, a Huntington Beach resident, was reading to the 7 and 8-year-old girls in a library on the Washington Elementary School campus in Santa Ana in 2017 and 2018, according to testimony by detectives at a previous court hearing.
Pineda — who prosecutors previously described as working with the Boys & Girls Club at the time — was taking part in a program in which college-age individuals would come read to second-grade students twice a week, according to the courtroom testimony.
Pineda several years ago admitted to molesting another student he met through the same program at a different school, and was sentenced to a year in jail., Prosecutors say that following that conviction, three additional girls came forward.
One girl told her mother that Pineda had her sit on his lap while he read and touched her underneath her clothing, according to law enforcement testimony. A second girl also reported that Pineda had her sit on his lap, while a third told investigators that Pineda inappropriately touched her while she was standing up.
Anyone with additional information regarding this case or any other victims of Pineda should contact the Santa Ana Police Department.
Manly, Stewart & Finaldi has represented hundreds of children who were sexually assaulted by teachers in schools and employees of youth organizations . We secured a settlement of $140 million on behalf of 81 child sexual abuse victims at Miramonte Elementary School in Los Angeles. This was the largest child sexual abuse settlement by a public school district in history. We are also the lead attorneys representing Olympic athletes and victims of former US Olympic Women’s Gymnastics Team Doctor Larry Nassar and secured $890 million in settlements for our clients. In each of these cases we have helped victims and families get justice by conducting a thorough investigation of the organization and the school In many cases we have discovered that administrators and executives know that the perpetrator was a danger to children and either did nothing or actively covered up the crimes.
