Ocean View teacher pleads not guilty to child molestation charges

An Ocean View High School teacher pleaded not guilty Friday to charges of sexually assaulting a teenage boy, prosecutors said.

Andrew Bueno-Potts, 43, of Long Beach faces four felony counts: sodomy by intoxication, sodomy of a person under 18, sexual penetration by a foreign object and intoxication, and sexual penetration by foreign object of a person under 18, the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office said.

Bueno-Potts is a science teacher and department chairman at Ocean View High in Huntington Beach.

The teacher met the victim, who was never a student at Ocean View, at a school event, Long Beach police said. Police said the boy later moved in with Bueno-Potts.

The victim contacted police in July 2018 to report three incidents of sexual assault and one incident of attempted sexual assault.

One sexual assault occurred in San Francisco, police said, adding that the others took place in Bueno-Potts’ home, police said.

Bueno-Potts provided the victim with alcohol and alkyl nitrate, a stimulant commonly known as a popper, police said.

Bueno-Potts faces a possible maximum sentence of 10 years in state prison. Bail is set at $500,000.

He is due back in court Nov. 2.

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