A former Orange County teacher has been convicted of child exploitation after prosecutors said he traveled to the Philippines to have sex with young girls and videotaped the encounters.
The United States Attorney's Office says 65-year-old Robert Ruben Ornelas was found guilty Thursday on seven counts including producing child pornography.
The former teacher with the Santa Ana School District will be sentenced February 27, when he faces a maximum penalty of 190 years in federal prison.
Authorities said that after at least three trips to the Philippines beginning in 2006, Ornelas brought video images of the sexual encounters back to the United States.
Ornelas worked as a teacher in the Santa Ana Unified School District from 1992 to 2003, and coached a local girls' softball team.
"This conviction should serve as a warning to every sexual predator who mistakenly believes they can evade justice by violating the innocence of children overseas," said Joseph Macias, special agent in charge of the U.S. Immigration Customs Enforcement's Homeland Security Investigations Los Angeles.
"There can be no place for the abuse of foreign children by our citizens, and HSI will seek to defend the rights of those victims no matter how far they live from our shores."
