The Simi teacher arrested tops the news online as the former 6th grade schoolteacher Brooks from Simi Valley was arrested and has since pleaded not guilty to charges of an alleged sexual relationship with a student under the age of 14. NBC Los Angeles reported on Wednesday, June 12, 2013, that Simi Valley teacher Malia Brooks had been arrested, and made her plea in court.
The 32-year-old Brooks was arrested on Tuesday night by the Simi Valley Police Department. Brooks had previously been a sixth-grade schoolteacher at Garden Grove Elementary School since 2004, and she faces one charge of a lewd act upon a child, one count of oral copulation of a person under 14, and three counts of genital penetration by a foreign object with a person under 14 years of afge when the suspect is more than 10 years older than the victim.
Her bail was set at $2 million to begin with, and she pleaded not guilty on Wednesday morning. Outside the courtroom, her attorney, Ron Bamieh, said Brooks "has suffered from a mental illness."
"We've had her diagnosed and she's in treatment," Bamieh said. "My guess is a lot of the charges precipitated from that illness."
Garden Grove has grades from kindergarten through sixth, and police would not say if the victim was in Brooks' classes. It was confirmed though, that he was a student at Garden Grove. The alleged relationship between Brooks and the student went on for several months. Garden Grove was alerted to the relationship on Feb. 22, 2013, but they did not say how that information came to pass.
The 32-year-old Brooks was arrested on Tuesday night by the Simi Valley Police Department. Brooks had previously been a sixth-grade schoolteacher at Garden Grove Elementary School since 2004, and she faces one charge of a lewd act upon a child, one count of oral copulation of a person under 14, and three counts of genital penetration by a foreign object with a person under 14 years of afge when the suspect is more than 10 years older than the victim.
Her bail was set at $2 million to begin with, and she pleaded not guilty on Wednesday morning. Outside the courtroom, her attorney, Ron Bamieh, said Brooks "has suffered from a mental illness."
"We've had her diagnosed and she's in treatment," Bamieh said. "My guess is a lot of the charges precipitated from that illness."
Garden Grove has grades from kindergarten through sixth, and police would not say if the victim was in Brooks' classes. It was confirmed though, that he was a student at Garden Grove. The alleged relationship between Brooks and the student went on for several months. Garden Grove was alerted to the relationship on Feb. 22, 2013, but they did not say how that information came to pass.