Ex-Teacher Pleads No Contest to Child Molestation Charge

A former junior high school home economics teacher pleaded no contest to one felony count of child molestation involving a 14-year-old student and was sentenced to three years probation, authorities said Friday.

As part of her sentence, Michelle Lynn Smith, 36, of Orange, was ordered to stay away from the boy and ordered to register as a sex offender, according to court documents. She was also ordered to pay restitution of $200.

During a hearing in North Municipal Court Wednesday before Judge Stephen J. Sundvold, Smith relinquished her teaching credential and resigned from Kraemer Junior High School, where she had taught for 13 years, Placentia police spokeswoman Corinne Loomis said.

Under state law, a defendant does not admit guilt when entering a no contest plea, but declines to fight the charges. The plea, however, is considered the same as a guilty plea for the purposes of sentencing.

Her lawyer, Kenneth L. Schreiber, refused comment Friday.

Smith, who is married and the mother of three young children, was arrested in February and initially charged with eight counts of child molestation, which allegedly occurred with the one victim over the course of a year.

Placentia police arrested Smith just after midnight on Feb. 26 after receiving an anonymous phone call involving “possibly suspicious” activity in a parked car on a city street. Officers found Smith and the boy inside the car, police said.