Ex-School Band Director Admits to Sex With 2 Minors

The former band director of Western High School pleaded guilty Friday to four counts of unlawful sexual relations during a plea bargain that guarantees probation, his attorney said.

Facing a possible maximum sentence of six years in state prison had he been found guilty, Jeffrey William Plum, 29, pleaded guilty to having sex with two band members on separate occasions last year, attorney Paul Wallin said.

“In light of the possibility of the jury convicting him and having him do six years in prison because of what is happening in 1985 with child sex cases,” Wallin said Plum changed his plea because he did not want to take a chance with a jury trial.

“My client is not a gambler,” Wallin said.

Plum, appearing before North Orange County Superior Court Judge James O. Perez at a pretrial hearing Friday, pleaded guilty to two counts of unlawful sexual relations with a minor and two counts of unlawful oral copulation with a minor. Sentencing is scheduled for Nov. 15.

The students, 15 and 17 at the time of the alleged incidents, said the band director had sex with them at his home and a hot-tub spa. Plum’s attorneys, in turn, said the girls fabricated the charges because they had a crush on the instructor and he had rejected their advances.

Police have said that the girls reported the incidents--which allegedly happened in February and November of last year--because they were concerned about Plum’s conduct during a forthcoming band trip. Plum was suspended without pay after his arrest in May of this year.

Plum is the second Anaheim Union High School District band director to face such charges in the past year. Katella High School’s former band director, Alex Delao, is serving three years in Chino state prison after pleading guilty last year to child-molestation charges.