Teacher gets 8 years for molesting two girls

An Irvine man was sentenced to eight years in prison Tuesday for molesting one of his students and a girl at Walmart.

Christopher Micah Brazelton, 36, was convicted in October of two counts of lewd acts upon a child younger than 14 with sentencing enhancements of having multiple victims and performing substantial sexual conduct on a child.

Authorities were alerted to Brazelton’s crimes after he grabbed a 12-year-old girl’s buttocks inside a Santa Ana Walmart as she passed by him in the school supplies aisle in 2008. Authorities were notified, and he was detained and ultimately convicted for the incident.

Brazelton’s second charge stemmed from detectives’ follow-up investigation. Police learned he was a teacher at Woodbury Elementary School in Garden Grove and notified the school.

Four more girls came forward as victims, saying that he had molested them between 2006 and 2008.

He was accused of inappropriately rubbing their thighs and crotches during class. The jury could not reach a verdict for three of the alleged incidents, but did convict him of molesting a 6-year-old girl.

On top of the prison sentence, Brazelton has to register as a lifetime sex offender.

— Joseph Serna

Twitter: @JosephSerna