COMPTON : Ex-Teacher Gets 2 Years for Molesting 11 Girls

A former Los Angeles elementary school teacher was sentenced to a two-year prison term Monday for molesting 11 girls in his first-grade classes over a three-year period.

But Louis Moreno has been in jail since his October, 1991, arrest and will be released in less than two months, a court employee said. The former teacher has credit for serving 663 days in custody.

Moreno, 50, pleaded guilty last month in Compton Superior Court to 11 counts of sexual battery for molesting students in his classroom at 96th Street Elementary School. Moreno could have been sentenced to more than 264 years in prison had he been convicted on all counts. A Superior Court jury had deadlocked in favor of acquitting Moreno, who entered his plea after prosecutors said they would retry him.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Barry Gale said he agreed to the plea bargain because “the obstacles we would have had to overcome (to win a conviction) were overwhelming, (and) many of the parents were hesitant to let their children testify again.”

Prosecutors contended that Moreno touched the victims after putting up a partition in the classroom, turning off the lights or telling the rest of the children to put their heads on their desks.