Ceramics Teacher Held on Suspicion of Molestation

A teacher at Santa Margarita Catholic High School has been arrested on 10 counts of child molestation after a parent tipped off authorities, an Orange County sheriff’s spokesman said Thursday.

Michael Karl Sandoval, a ceramics teacher, was arrested Wednesday at Huntington Memorial Hospital in Pasadena, where he had admitted himself to the psychiatric ward, sheriff’s spokesman Jim Amormino said.

Sandoval, 49, was arrested and taken to Orange County Jail in Santa Ana, where he was being held on $100,000 bail. He is to be arraigned today at the Central Justice Center in Santa Ana.

Law enforcement officials said the female victim is younger than 14. Amormino said she is not a student at the Rancho Santa Margarita high school but does know Sandoval.

Authorities allege the molestation happened between July 1 and April 30. The girl’s mother called investigators Monday, Amormino said, and Sandoval checked himself into Huntington Memorial the same day.

Maria Schinderle, spokeswoman for the Diocese of Orange, said Sandoval had been a faculty member at Santa Margarita for seven years after transferring from a Roman Catholic high school in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. She said Sandoval has been on sick leave “for the last few days.”

“We’re shocked and saddened by this,” Schinderle said. “We haven’t had any negative reports regarding Sandoval.”

Apparently he was well-liked by students, she said.

Amormino said investigators suspect that Sandoval may have molested other children. He encouraged anyone with information about Sandoval to call the sheriff’s sex crimes unit.

However, Amormino said Sandoval does not have a criminal history. He did not release any other information about the suspect, except to say he is married.

“If there are other victims, we’d like to know about it,” the spokesman said.

“But for now we’re proceeding with the investigation involving only one victim.”

Authorities released only limited information about the case to protect the girl’s identity. Amormino would not say whether she lives near Sandoval’s home in Rancho Santa Margarita.