Teacher pleads not guilty
An East Los Angeles middle school teacher was criminally charged Tuesday on suspicion of molesting two students in 2005 and 2006.
Stevenson Middle School teacher Antonio Gomez, 36, pleaded not guilty to 11 counts of committing a lewd act upon a child. The victims were girls in Gomez’s classes, said Sandi Gibbons, a spokeswoman for the district attorney’s office.
One victim was under 14 years old at the time of the alleged crimes, the other was 14 or 15, the criminal complaint said.
Gomez sat with his wife in the courtroom awaiting his arraignment. He wore a light gray business suit and twitched nervously before rising to face Los Angeles County Superior Court Commissioner Catherine Pratt. Pratt set Gomez’s bail at $620,000. After entering his plea, Gomez was taken into custody.
Gibbons said the Gomez case remains under investigation and school officials asked other victims or persons with information to come forward.
Attilio Regolo Jr., one of Gomez’s lawyers, said charges against Gomez were “exaggerated grossly out of context with what actually happened. My client is an upstanding, good person who leads a moral life. He is happily married and a good family man.”
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