Former Teacher Convicted of Sex-Related Charges
A former Long Beach teacher was convicted Monday of sex-related charges involving three victims, including two former students.Jurors found Mark Anthony Santo, now 54, guilty of two counts of lewd act on a child under 14 and one count each of forcible sexual penetration, forcible oral copulation, assault with intent to commit forcible oral copulation and assault with intent to commit forcible penetration, according to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office.Santo was taken into custody after the jury’s verdict and is facing a potential life prison term, according to the District Attorney’s Office. Santo was initially charged in May 2020 with committing a lewd act at his home in La Mirada in 2015 with a 13-year-old girl who was a family friend. The District Attorney’s Office subsequently added charges involving two additional victims.The prosecution alleged that Santo — who taught at Jordan High School and Lindbergh Middle School — inappropriately touched one of his students at the middle school during the 2012-13 school year and forced oral sex in 2018 on an 18-year-old woman who had been one of his students in the seventh