Diamond Bar Man to Serve Three Years for 2006 Molestation

A Diamond Bar man who formerly worked as an assistant band instructor at local high schools recently was sentenced to three years in prison for sexually assaulting a 16-year-old girl in 2006. 

Albert Anthony Morales, 33, pleaded no contest on March 21 to one count of oral copulation of an unconscious person, reported the San Gabriel Valley Tribune. 

A second charge of oral copulation of an unconscious person, two counts of sexual penetration by a foreign object, and one count of sodomy of an unconscious person under 18 were demised, the newspaper reported.  

Morales was appearing in Pomona Superior Court for a pre-preliminary hearing when he entered the no contest plea, according to court records.  He was given credit for 88 days served.  Morales must register as a sex offender for life, said Jane Robison, a spokeswoman with the Los Angeles County District Attorney's office.

He originally pleaded not guilty to all of the charges March 1.

Los Angeles County Sheriff’s investigators arrested Morales Feb. 5 at his Diamond Bar home. Authorities allege that he sexually assaulted the victim, now 22, in the summer of 2006 when she was a student at Sunny Hills High School in Fullerton.

Morales tutored band students, specifically working as a percussion instructor, for the past 13 years, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department. 

He has taught or volunteered in the Los Angeles and Orange County areas, including stints at Diamond Ranch High from 2012-2013, Sunny Hills High from 2004 to 2009, and Diamond Bar High from 1998 to 2000, authorities said.