A former second-grade teacher at Rowland Elementary School is facing five years in state prison in connection with his no contest plea to charges involving the molestation of five female students, the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office announced Tuesday.
Jose Cruz Martinez, 54, of Rowland Heights pleaded no contest to four felony counts of lewd acts upon a child and one misdemeanor count of child molesting, according to Deputy District Attorney Michelle Graves.
The girls -- who were 7 or 8 -- were inappropriately touched on the school campus between August 2017 and April 2018, according to the District Attorney's Office.
Martinez was arrested last April by the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department's Special Victims Bureau. He has remained behind bars since then, according to jail records.
The Rowland Unified School District said in a statement last year that the teacher was immediately removed from the classroom and the school when they received information about the misconduct, and that parents were notified.
Martinez is due back in a Pomona courtroom for sentencing March 21.
