Teacher Pleads Guilty to Molestation
A teacher at Knox Elementary School pleaded guilty Wednesday to three counts of molesting two 12-year-old female students.
Ernest Booker Brown, 48, who has been in custody since his arrest Nov. 30, 1989, entered into a plea bargain agreement Tuesday in which 26 other sex charges involving the same girls were dropped.
Brown faces a maximum sentence of eight years in state prison and a $10,000 fine. Upon his release on parole, he must register as a sex offender.
Deputy Dist. Atty. Aaron Katz said the pleas were taken to avoid traumatizing the girls, who would have had to testify in open court at the trial, scheduled for Friday.
They testified at Brown’s preliminary hearing in February, but that hearing was closed to the press and public.
Sentencing was set for July 11.
Brown pleaded guilty to performing lewd acts on the girls that occurred in 1987 and 1988.
Because of his felony conviction for molestation, Brown will probably lose his teaching credential.
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