The victim who was molested in 2004 said she and her mother had reported the incident to school officials, but Pineda was allowed to continue teaching.

Former substitute teacher ordered to prison for molestation conviction

A judge sentenced a Gaithersburg man on Friday to serve five years in prison for sexually touching two girls in county middle schools in 2004 and in 2014.

The sentence satisfies the terms of a plea agreement reached in April between defendant Jose Pineda, 50, of Gaithersburg, a former substitute teacher, and the county’s state’s attorney’s office.

The plea means that Pineda will not go to trial on charges of third-degree sex offense and sex abuse of a child, sparing the victims from having to testify.

“I’m thankful they will not have to relive [the experience],” the mother of a girl who was molested last year said in court.

The Gazette does not usually identify by name the victims of sex offenses. The mother is not being named to protect the identity of her daughter.

Pineda, who taught math and other middle school subjects, repeatedly brushed his arm or hand across the victims’ buttocks, in one case squeezing them, according to charging documents.
In another case, he stuck his hand up a victim’s shorts and touched her buttock, charging documents said.
Members of Pineda’s family spoke at the sentencing hearing, saying he has a good character. His son, Jose Pineda Jr., said he believed his father could change.
But Assistant State’s Attorney Timothy Hagan said Pineda violated the trust students put in their teachers. He said Pineda had been reprimanded by administrators at two schools for inappropriate sexual conduct.
“He kept putting himself in that situation all day long. ... He betrayed that trust for his own sexual pleasure,” said Montgomery County Circuit Court Judge Joseph Dugan Jr., who sentenced Pineda.
The victim who was molested in 2004 said she and her mother had reported the incident to school officials, but Pineda was allowed to continue teaching.
“I’m just happy that it’s all taken care of,” the victim, now an adult, said in an interview after the sentencing hearing. “It’s been 10 years. I’m just happy something was done.”