A former teacher’s aide accused of having sex with one of his underage students has been released after serving 582 days in jail, according to officials.
Anthony Sutton, 34, pleaded no contest on Nov. 10 to three counts of unlawful sex with a minor and prosecutors dropped 10 other charges as part of a plea deal.
“The disposition was due to the fact that at trial we did not have proof beyond a reasonable doubt to disprove a defense claim that the defendant thought the victim was 18 years old at the time of the incident,” a Los Angeles District Attorney’s office spokesperson said.
Sutton was was arrested in April 2019 when a 17-year-old student at Beach Cities Learning Center in Long Beach came forward with allegations that he had filmed them having sex in his apartment multiple times, according to a search warrant filed in Long Beach Superior Court. Sutton had been working at the Beach Cities Learning Center since January 2019, according to the DA’s office.
He originally pleaded not guilty to 13 charges including one count of sexual exploitation of a child and four counts each of unlawful sexual intercourse, oral copulation of a person under 18 and contact with a minor for a sexual offense. If convicted of these charges, he would have faced up to 11 years in prison.
In November, he entered a “no contest” plea to three counts of unlawful sex with a minor and the rest of the charges were dismissed, according to court records. A Long Beach judge sentenced him to the time he’d already served in jail, which was 582 days, and five years of felony probation, the DA spokesperson said.
While Sutton does not have to register as a sex offender, his sentence includes a 10-year protective order for the victim and the conditions of his probation include that he cannot get employment where children will be present. He was ordered to not be around children unsupervised, the spokesperson said.
His probation also contains search conditions that subject him, his property and electronic devices to search and seizure at any time with or without a warrant, probable cause or reasonable suspicion.