OC high-school teacher sentenced to 16 months in jail for sex with student

SANTA ANA, Calif. (KABC) -- A high school Spanish teacher was sentenced Friday to 16 months in jail for having a sexual relationship with his then 17-year-old student.

Scott Adrian Peterson, 50, would regularly meet the Orange High School student for sex in an Orange riverbed and at a motel, authorities said.

According to a statement released by the Orange County District Attorney's Office, Peterson pleaded guilty on Aug. 27 to two felony counts of unlawful sexual intercourse, four felony counts of oral copulation with a minor and two felony counts of sexual penetration of a minor by a foreign object.

The Anaheim resident allegedly took sexual explicit pictures of himself with the victim and sent her sexually explicit text messages during their unlawful sexual relationship.

Prosecutors said Peterson would take the victim to Disneyland, meet her and her friends at social events and hang out. One of the victim's family members grew suspicious of the time the two would spend together outside of school and discovered sexual text messages on the girl's phone. The family member told the victim's mother who then alerted police.

Peterson was arrested Dec. 2 when he emerged from the riverbed where the two would meet and have sex.

The former teacher was sentenced to four years in prison Friday. However under the new State sentencing laws, the court split Peterson's sentence. He is required to serve 16 months in jail and the remaining three year under mandatory supervision.

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