Santa Ana Substitute Teacher Peter Morales Arrested for Alleged Sexual Molestation of Students

On May 6, 2022, Santa Ana Police officers responded to Adams Elementary School to investigate allegations that Peter Morales, a 69-year-old substitute teacher, sexually molested four female students while in the classroom. According to police, the students are between the ages of eight and nine years old and told school officials that Morales touched them inappropriately. It is alleged that each victim was molested individually and at different times throughout the day.

Officers arrested Morales, who worked as a teacher for the Santa Ana Unified School District for 18 years and is now employed as a substitute teacher. Morales was booked for Child Molest and subsequently posted bail that was set at $100,000.00.

Santa Ana Police Department Detectives are asking for anyone with information to contact Detective Anthony Pacheco at 714-245-8352, Apacheco@santa-ana.org or Orange County Crime Stoppers at 1-855-TIP-OCCS.

Manly, Stewart & Finaldi has represented hundreds of child sexual abuse victims of teachers and coaches in California schools and Universities. We have secured settlements totaling more than $40 million for families of victims abused in the San Bernardino County schools. We were the lead attorneys helping sexual abuse victims in recover $852 million from the University of Southern California.  We are also the lead attorneys representing Olympic athletes and victims of former US Olympic Women’s Gymnastics Team Doctor Larry Nassar and secured $890 million in settlements for our clients. We secured a $243.6 million settlement on behalf of sexual abuse victims at UCLA.In each of these cases we have helped victims and families get justice by conducting a thorough investigation of the organization and the school . We secured a settlement of $140 million on behalf of 81 child sexual abuse victims at Miramonte Elementary School in Los Angeles. This was the largest child sexual abuse settlement by a public school district in history. In many cases we have discovered that administrators and executives know that the perpetrator was a danger to children and either did nothing or actively covered up the crimes.