Ex-Pacoima Teacher Pleads No Contest To Molesting 13 Kids
PACOIMA (CBSLA.com) — A former third grade teacher in Pacoima pleaded no contest Monday to molesting 13 students over a four-and-a-half year period.
Paul Chapel III, 51, stated his plea to 13 counts of lewd acts on a child at what was supposed to be his preliminary hearing in San Fernando Superior Court.
Last fall, the ex-Telfair Elementary School teacher was arrested and charged for sexually abusing three girls and a boy.
Chapel was charged with molesting nine more children in May.
The abuses took place between September 2006 and April 2011, according to prosecutors.
Chapel was fired by the Los Angeles Unified School District, but the district came under fire for not notifying parents about his arrest and a series of other sex abuse cases as soon as they could.
He was reportedly hired by L.A. Unified in 1988 and was assigned to a Northridge elementary school.
Chapel was transferred to Telfair Elementary in 1998 after he was arrested on suspicion of molesting his adopted son's friend at his home. The case ended in a hung jury.
Chapel is expected to be sentenced to 25 years in prison. He will also be ordered to register as a sex offender for life.
"Let him stay in there. Let him rot. Let the correctional system take care of him," said Telfair parent Warren Mauran. "The fact that my son, at the time, was in third grade, it touches a little close to home."
KCAL9 contacted the LAUSD for comment, but they said: "No statement will be available."
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