A teacher’s aide at a special-needs school filmed himself having sex with a 17-year-old student, Long Beach police allege in newly revealed court documents.
The aide, Anthony Sutton, 32, was arrested earlier this month on suspicion of sexually abusing the student, but a search warrant filed in Long Beach Superior Court reveals new details of the allegations.
The girl was a student at Beach City Learning Center in Long Beach where Sutton worked since January, according to authorities.
During school one day, the girl said she wanted to be a model, and, “Sutton advised her he could help her achieve that goal and asked to friend her on Instagram,” according to the warrant.
The girl told police that when she started to type in her username on Sutton’s phone so he could send her a friend request, “She noticed her username popped up in the recent search window,” the warrant says. “She thought it was weird, but did not think anything of it and allowed him to friend her on Instagram.”
She also gave him her phone number, and after texting each other, Sutton offered to help her work on a website for her modeling, and they met up at his apartment, police wrote.
The two had sex at least three times over the span of two months, all of which Sutton recorded on his cell phone, the victim told police, according to the warrant.
Police wrote that the victim also saw a video on Sutton’s phone of him having sex with another girl, whom he allegedly said was 17.
“Sutton told the victim he has had several young girlfriends that are 17-years-old,” police wrote.
Sutton threatened the student not to tell anyone about the abuse, police wrote, but she came forward with her accusations on April 8.
After corroborating details of her story with text messages on her phone, police arrested Sutton on April 9, according to authorities.
He’s pleaded not guilty to 13 charges, which include one count of sexual exploitation of a child and four counts each of unlawful sexual intercourse, oral copulation of a person under 18 and contact with a minor for a sexual offense.
Authorities have urged anyone else who may have been victimized by Sutton to come forward. They also seized his computer and other items during a search of his home, according to the warrant.
Sutton’s employer did not respond to messages about him.
Beach City Learning—which has campuses in Long Beach, Manhattan Beach, Palos Verdes and San Gabriel—describes itself as a program that caters to students with documented disabilities who need a more restrictive setting than public school.
Sutton is being held in lieu of $200,000 bail, according to jail records. He could face 11 years in prison if convicted.