GERMANTOWN, Md. (WUSA9) -- Jose Pineda, a former substitute teacher for Montgomery County Public Schools was sentenced to ten years on Friday for groping teenagers.
Pineda was sentenced for one count of sex abuse of a minor, and one count of third degree sex offense.
Pineda was sentenced to ten years for each of those charges, with five years suspended from each. Pineda will likely serve five years in prison and five years probation. If he violates probation he will serve an additional five years, WUSA9's Debra Alfarone reported.
Pineda worked in at least 20 Montgomery County schools from November 2013 to September 2014. From 2000 to 2003 Pineda was a school bus driver, and from 2003 to 2006 he was a substitute teacher for the school system. He served as a substitute teacher again from March 2013 to September 2014.
PREVIOUS STORY: Former teacher pleads guilty to child sex abuse
Police started investigating Pineda for allegedly inappropriately touching a female student at Roberto Clemente Middle School in September 2014. He was then charged with third-degree sex offense and sex abuse of a minor. Nine other female students also came forward to report that Pineda touched them inappropriately during the school day.
A victim reported sex abuse to the school principal and a counselor in 2004 but they never reported it to police or Child Protective Services. When a then-12-year-old student tearfully told Forest Oak Middle School's then-principal John Burley and a school counselor about of Jose Pineda's repeated inappropriate touching in 2004, the principal allegedly told her not to report the incident prosecutors said Wednesday.
"The school system is cooperating with us now I think they recognize it what they did was indefensible," State's Attorney John McCarthy said.
The victim, now 23, said Friday that what Pineda did to her changed her entire life. "After all these years I'm happy that justice was served," the victim said.
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In court on Friday, the prosecution said that Pineda was put on a do-not-use list for a school in 2005-2006 and at another in 2014.
Pineda is from Honduras and the married father of three. His wife, son and about 20 members of extended family were in the courthouse for the sentencing. Family members said they don't believe he groped the students even though he pleaded guilty. As for Pineda, he cried during the sentencing hearing, says to the groping victims, "I'm very sorry for what I did."
In addition to his sentence, Pineda may also face deportation.
