Convicted sex offender receives 28 years in prison for molesting three girls at a California elementary school

A convicted sex offender has been sentenced to 28 years in prison for sexually assaulting three girls during a reading program at a Santa Ana elementary school, court records show.

Miguel Angel Pineda, now 29, agreed to a plea deal on August 20 in which he admitted to three counts of sexual assault on a child. Pineda had previously been charged with nine counts of sexual assault and lascivious assault on a child under 14.

The lewd acts occurred as Pineda, a Huntington Beach resident, read to the 7- and 8-year-old girls in a library on the campus of Washington Elementary School in Santa Ana in 2017 and 2018, according to testimony from investigators at a previous court hearing.