LOS ANGELES — A Valencia man was charged with sexually assaulting one of his female students over the past two months, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office says.
David Cornish, 28, was charged with five counts each of “lewd act upon a child, sexual penetration of a person under the age of 18, oral copulation of a person under the age of 16, and one count each of meeting a minor for lewd purposes, contact with a minor for a sexual offense and distributing or showing child pornography to a minor.”
Arraignment was postponed until Monday.
Over the past two months, Cornish is accused of having an unlawful sexual relationship with a 14-year-old girl he taught at Saugus High School. Cornish was arrested Wednesday after the victim reported the relationship to investigators.
“The Hart District is deeply concerned that one of our substitute teachers, David Cornish, was arrested and is expected to be charged with engaging in sexual misconduct with a Saugus High School minor student,” Hart District officials wrote in a statement released on Thursday. “The district strives to provide a safe educational environment for all of our students, and we are saddened and disturbed that one of our substitute teachers is being charged with this misconduct.”
If convicted as charged, Cornish faces a possible maximum sentence of 16 years and six months in state prison.
The case remains under investigation by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department’s Special Victims Bureau.
