Joseph Thomas Koetters, a former English teacher at L.A.’s elite all-girls Marlborough School charged with sexually abusing two students, pleaded guilty to four criminal counts on Wednesday.
The Los Angeles Times reports Koetters ,48, was sentenced to a year in jail as part of a plea deal he made with prosecutors.
Koetters was accused of abusing two teenage girls; one student in 2000 and the other in 2004. David Ring, the attorney representing both victims, says Koetters will have to register as a sex offender and will receive five years of formal probation. He will also be forbidden from being with any female under the age of 18 other than his daughter.
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“I hope Marlborough will now own up and admit its fault in allowing this to occur under its watch,” said Ring on Oct. 14 when the plea deal was agreed upon.
One of the victims, a Marlborough student who was 16 years old in 2000 at the time of the alleged abuse, says she was pregnant with Koetters‘ child before suffering a miscarriage. She has filed a lawsuit against the private school.
Last November, Marlborough’s chief administrator stepped down from her post following a school investigation that revealed she did not properly respond to allegations against Koetters.
