Juvenile detention camp therapist pleads not guilty to molesting teen
A former therapist at a juvenile detention camp pleaded not guilty to sexually assaulting a 16-year-old patient, the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office announced.
Ana Patricia Moennich, 36, was ordered to stand trial Tuesday on sexual misconduct charges, Deputy Dist. Atty. Seth Carmack said in a statement. She faces felony counts of contact with a minor for sexual offense and oral copulation with a person under 18. She was also charged with a misdemeanor count of child molesting.
While working as a therapist at Camp Mendenhall, Moennich engaged in a sexual relationship with a teenage boy, according to the release. The victim was serving a juvenile sentence at the detention center in Lake Hughes, 20 miles west of Lancaster. Moennich allegedly molested the boy during a seven-month period while he was attending therapy sessions with her between April 27, 2013, and Nov. 22, 2013.
She is due back in court Nov. 4. If convicted, Moennich faces up to six years in state prison.
The case remains under investigation by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.
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