A 60-year-old teacher’s aide at a Los Angeles-area high school has been charged with molesting a 16-year-old special-education student who reportedly has the mental capacity of an elementary school student.
On May 7, Juan Carlos Gutierrez, who has been employed at Leuzinger High School in Lawndale for a couple decades, allegedly accompanied the student to a stairwell and fondled her, according to KTLA.
Dan Scott of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s special victims bureau told KTLA that another student saw what was happening and recorded the crime with his cellphone, then alerted school officials. A surveillance camera at the school also recorded the teacher’s aide molesting the mentally-disabled teenager.
Leuzinger High School officials said that Gutierrez is no longer working as a teacher’s aide, but would not say if the teacher’s aide has been fired or suspended.
Gutierrez, who is married and lives with his wife and daughter in Redondo Beach, faces three misdemeanor counts of molesting a child.
An attorney representing Gutierrez told KTLA that his client is “100 percent” innocent.
Bail is set at $60,000.
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