OC Teacher in Teen Sex Case Due in Court

Orange County - A Spanish teacher at Orange High School is scheduled to make his first court appearance tomorrow on charges of having a sexual relationship with one of his students.

Scott Adrian Peterson, 48, of Anaheim, was charged Dec. 7 with two counts each of unlawful sexual intercourse and sexual penetration by a foreign object of a minor and four counts of oral copulation of a minor -- all felonies.

Peterson, who posted $100,000 bail, is due in a Santa Ana courtroom tomorrow morning for arraignment.

Peterson met the alleged victim -- a 17-year-old girl -- when she was one of his students at the high school, Deputy District Attorney Katherine David said. Peterson would hang out with the teen after school, taking her to places like Disneyland, the prosecutor said.

Investigators were still working to determine when they allegedly began having sex, but in April, he took sexually explicit pictures of them together, David said. Peterson also allegedly sent sexually explicit text messages to the girl about their relationship, the prosecutor said.

The two would regularly meet to have sex at a motel and in a riverbed in Orange near Angel Stadium and the Century Stadium 25 movie theater, David alleged.

One of the girl's family members grew suspicious of the relationship and found the text messages on her phone, David said. The family member told the girl's mother, who went to police.

Peterson moved out of his home about the same time he was placed on leave from the high school as his supervisors began an internal investigation, so police initially had trouble finding him, David said. He was arrested on Dec. 2.

"They pinged his new cell phone and the ping came around the area of the riverbed," David said. "All of the detectives were driving around there and they just so happened to spot (the victim's) car."

About 15 minutes after the girl left, Peterson came out of the riverbed area and was arrested, the prosecutor said.