Roberto Clemente Sex Abuser Hit With More Charges
By Kevin O’Rourke
The man who was charged with two counts of sexual abuse while working at Roberto Clemente Middle School has been slapped with six additional charges of sexually abusing three students while in working as a substitute teacher in two other Montgomery County Public Schools.
MCPD Detectives from the Special Victims Investigation Division charged Jose Pineda with three additional counts of Third Degree Sex Offense and three more counts of Sexual Abuse of a Minor.
Two of the victims were students at Ridgeview Middle School. At the times of the alleged sex offenses the students were in either the sixth or seventh grade. The incidents at Ridgeview Middle School occurred during the end of the 2013-2014 school year, according to police. Pineda allegedly inappropriately touched two female students on two different occasions during the school day while acting as a substitute teacher.
Police are unsure if the sexual offenses at Ridgeview Middle School took place on the same day, but they believe they both occurred near the end of the school year. Pineda worked at Ridgeview Middle School on 29 days over the 2013-2014 school year, according to MCPS. Pineda worked in MCPS schools for a total of 113 days during the 2013-2014 school year.
The third victim was a student at Forest Oak Middle School. The incident at Forest Oak Middle School occurred in 2004. Again, Pineda allegedly touched a female student inappropriately during the school day while acting as a substitute teacher.
Previously, MCPS has said another student at Gaithersburg Elementary had forward and “indicated they had interactions with Pineda that were inappropriate or made them feel uncomfortable.” Pineda had worked at Gaithersburg Elementary for three days since the beginning of last school year. No charges have been brought in connection with this incident.
Pineda is currently being held on $150,000 bond at the Montgomery County Detention Center with a bond review scheduled for Monday, Nov. 24, 2014 at 1:00 pm at the Rockville District Court.
Montgomery County Public Schools has been taking a lot of heat for the way it has handle the Roberto Clemente case another recent sexual abuse situation at John T. Baker Middle School in Damascus. Earlier this week, at a meeting at Roberto Clemente, the principal again apologized for not alerting parents about the incident sooner. Roberto Clemente parents were informed 38 days after the incident occurred and 25 days after Pineda was arrested by MCPD.
At a meeting Tuesday night, Principal Khadija Barkley told parents that her intention was to never to cover-up the incident, but rather to protect the privacy of the victim. She said it wasn’t until the Damascus incident became public that she considered that there could other victims.
Barkley also confirmed what had been reported from the beginning that the victim, after reporting the abuse to the school administration, had been sent back to the classroom where Pineda was teaching. She told parents that a staff member at Roberto Clemente attempted to investigate and questioned the victim and other witnesses and later sent both the victim and the witnesses back to the classroom.
MCPS is reviewing the procedures for informing parents of serious incidents at schools, according a schools system spokesperson. “We should have informed the community earlier about this arrest but we made a mistake and did not,” said Gboyinde Onijala, senior communications specialist with MCPS.” We will review our procedures to ensure that this kind of mistake does not happen again.”
