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By Lookout Staff

December 23 -- A former Santa Monica middle school teacher will spend 14 years in state prison after he pleaded guilty Monday to molesting nine girls in a string of crimes that dates back to 2000.

Thomas Arthur Beltran, 61, who taught at Lincoln Middle School for 20 years, admitted to sexually molesting nine girls. He also admitted he had molested two others but was not charged in those cases because the statute of limitations had expired.

Beltran, who faced the prospect of life in prison, reached the plea deal shortly before a preliminary hearing in the case was set to begin.

The counts against Beltran include continuous sexual abuse, lewd act on a child and sexual penetration with a foreign object of a child younger than age 14.

Beltran will be required to register as a sex offender when he is released from prison.

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge William Hollingsworth sentenced Beltran to 14 years in state prison and required that he register as a sex offender when he is released. He was sentenced without the possibility of parole.

Beltran was charged seven counts of continuous sexual abuse, two counts of lewd act on a child and one count of sexual penetration on a child under 14 with a foreign object.

Beltran, who has taught English as a Second Language (ESL) at the prestigious public middle school for two decades was arrested May 3 in Culver City after police interviewed a 12-year-old student who claimed Beltran sexually abused her. (“Lincoln Middle School Teacher Arrested for Molesting Students,” May 5, 2008)

The girl said her teacher sexually assaulted her repeatedly in the classroom.

Police concluded other students may have been molested and interviewed all the students at the school who had any connection with Beltran, local police said.

As a result of the investigation, Beltran was charged May 6 with eight counts of committing a lewd act on a child and three counts each of continuous sexual abuse and sexual penetration on a child under 14 with a foreign object.

He pleaded not guilty to the charges. The crimes allegedly took place between December 2004 and April 2008.

The story quickly made headlines up and down the state, and press and television crews swarmed the middle school campus.

The district offered counseling for students and met with worried parents.

A resident of Los Angeles, Beltran, who has worked in the district for 30 years, has been married 35 years.