An April 20 trial date was set Wednesday for a former East County elementary school teacher charged with molesting seven girls while they were students in his classroom about a decade ago.
Robert Noel Anderson, 59, is suspected of molesting the victims while teaching fourth- and sixth-grade classes at Dehesa Elementary. He left his teaching job in 2006.
Several women testified that Anderson touched them inappropriately as they sat on his lap in class in 2003 and 2004.
Anderson faces 11 counts of committing a lewd act on a child. Two similar charges concerning an eighth alleged victim were dismissed following a two-day preliminary hearing last month.
Multiple suspected abuse cases were reported to the sheriff’s department between 2003 and 2013, when the investigation was re-opened. Anderson was arrested last September, after a criminal complaint and warrant were issued in the case.
He faces 28 years in prison if convicted.
— City News Service
