Teacher Convicted of Molestation : Courts: A woman testifies that the former Moorpark College instructor fondled her in his office.

Aonetime instructor at Moorpark College was found guilty Tuesday of sexually molesting a former student in his campus office.

But the May 8 incident that led to the conviction of Alejandro (Alex) Paredes was not the first time that the 40-year-old Spanish teacher was accused of improprieties with women on campus, according to a motion filed in Ventura County Superior Court by Deputy Dist. Atty. Michael K. Frawley.

Two students alleged that Paredes molested them, and two other women said that he had verbally harassed them with sexual overtures, according to Frawley’s motion.

But the 18-year-old victim in the May 8 incident was the only one who reported Paredes’ behavior to police and agreed to testify against him in court.

Frawley said the swift guilty verdict shows that when victims of sexual assaults step forward, “jurors will believe them.”

“If the William Kennedy Smith case has resulted in victims not coming forward because they think their story will not be believed . . . this case is proof that we do get convictions,” Frawley said.

Like the Smith rape trial, which ended in acquittal, the Paredes case forced jurors to believe either the defendant or his accuser.

During about 90 minutes of testimony, the female student, now 19, said she ran into Paredes at a noontime event on campus. He had been her teacher the previous semester, and he invited her to his office to chat, the woman testified.

In his office, Paredes made suggestive remarks, then pinned the woman to her chair and fondled her, the woman said. She broke free and hit Parades on the head with her sandal before running from the office, the woman testified.

When he took the witness stand, Parades--who is married--described the episode as “a typical romantical encounter.” He said he and the woman had been necking in his parked car, then went to his office. Paredes told the jury that he might be guilty of poor judgment but insisted that he had not committed a crime.

Jurors deliberated for about an hour Monday afternoon, then asked to have the woman’s testimony reread to them before going home for the day. Minutes after they reconvened Tuesday morning, they agreed on the guilty verdicts.

The jury was not allowed to hear evidence of the other incidents involving Paredes, which began in the spring of 1989, according to the prosecutor’s motion.

The first allegedly occurred in a classroom where students were taking a test. While leaning over a student’s shoulder to look at a paper, Paredes grabbed her breast, Frawley said.

The woman told her mother about the incident but did not want to alert authorities because she feared that it would affect her grade in Paredes’ class, Frawley said. The woman came forward after learning of Paredes’ arrest, the prosecutor said.

Then, in November, 1989, Paredes allegedly grabbed an 18-year-old student in his office and kissed her. According to the court file, when the student told him that he needed to control himself, Paredes replied: “I know. I can’t help it. I just love the ladies.”

The woman did not report the incident for several months, but mentioned it to a college administrator just before Paredes was arrested in the May 8 case, Frawley said.

Paredes could not be reached Monday for his account of the 1989 and 1990 alleged incidents. His attorney, Douglas Allen Demaret, declined to comment.

The other two incidents involved sexual remarks allegedly made to one woman in the fall of 1989 and another in the fall of 1990 on the Moorpark campus. According to Frawley’s motion, Paredes admitted using poor judgment in those incidents, which resulted in letters of reprimand by college officials.

Paredes was fired after his arrest.

“School officials are not at fault for what he did,” Frawley said. “If they . . . thought he was doing this to students, they would have done something.”

Paredes, a Simi Valley resident who has no prior criminal record, faces up to four years in prison but is eligible for probation. Judge Frederick A. Jones scheduled sentencing for Feb. 21. Paredes remains free on $10,000 bail.