Molestation Suspect Files Guilty Plea : Courts: The former teacher is expected to receive a reduced prison term of 12 years.

Former Los Angeles public school teacher Don Ray Moore, accused of molesting children at the inner-city elementary school where he once taught, pleaded guilty to four felony counts of child molestation Wednesday and is expected to receive a 12-year, reduced prison sentence.

The surprise plea was made just before four young women were to testify at a preliminary hearing against the former teacher at the 97th Street School. In the courtroom, they wept, enraged that Moore would not be in jail for the rest of his life.

“This has taken so long,” said one woman, now 18. “I wish they could lock him away forever.”

Moore, 52, jumped bail nearly three years ago to avoid the molestation charges but was captured last month in a Ventura County homeless camp.

When Moore, wearing a blue jail uniform, entered court and was manacled to a chair, the women, now between 17 and 20, followed every move with their eyes. Two started to cry at the sight of him. Moore did not look at them.

Under the settlement, Moore pleaded guilty to four counts of the 21 charged, and is expected to be sentenced to 12 years in state prison instead of a potential 48 years, according to Deputy Dist. Atty. Ryan Rainey.

The remaining felony charges, as well as related misdemeanor complaints, will be dismissed, Rainey said. Municipal Judge Elva R. Soper set sentencing for Sept. 12.

“He’s an old man, he’s tired, he’s been a fugitive,” Moore’s attorney, Deputy Public Defender John Powers, later said of Moore’s guilty plea. “He didn’t want to put these girls through any trauma, and he didn’t want to put his family through trauma.”

Given the nature of the charges, Moore also did not feel he could get a fair trial, Powers added. “He was concerned that he’d be sentenced so that he might die in prison.” Under the settlement, Moore could be released in six years.

Rainey said he agreed to the settlement because “the case is 9 years old” and victims would have difficulty remembering “specifically what happened when they were in the sixth grade.”

Outside the courtroom, the young women’s tears had turned from anger to bitterness. One wept in the arms of Gary Lyon, a detective for the Los Angeles Police Department’s Juvenile Division, who began investigating Moore four years ago.

“It’s not fair,” said one woman, now a student nurse. “He deserves to have longer in jail.”

She was also frustrated by Moore’s calm courtroom demeanor. “He had this nonchalant attitude, like he didn’t care,” she said. Another knotted her fists and seemed to relive what had happened to her. “He made me feel like I committed a crime, and I didn’t,” she said, her voice choking.

Moore disappeared in August, 1987, as he faced felony molestation charges dating back to 1981, against fifth- and sixth-grade girls at the school where he had taught for 16 years. He was also facing trial on misdemeanor counts ranging from battery--for illegally paddling four boys--to molesting 10 girls. None of the charges involved sexual penetration. One was for oral copulation.

When he was captured, Moore was living in a Ventura river bottom area known as Hobo Jungle, foraging for bottles and cans to support himself.

Outside the courtroom, another of the young women, now 18 and employed as a baker, patted her 14-month old daughter, asleep on her shoulder, and said she would never forget Don Ray Moore.

“My daughter is going to grow up and go to school,” she said, “and I’ll wonder if there’s going to be a teacher or an aide doing the same thing to my child.”