Pubdate: Sat, 13 Jan 2007
Source: Valencia County News-Bulletin (NM)
Copyright: 2007 The News-Bulletin
Contact: http://www.news-bulletin.com/site/feedback.html
Website: http://www.news-bulletin.com
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/3704
Author: Clara Garcia

FORMER TEACHER PLEADS GUILTY TO ATTEMPTED CONTRIBUTING  TO
DELINQUENCY

A former Belen Middle School teacher accused of  allowing a student to
hide a marijuana pipe in his  pickup truck during school hours two
years ago entered  into a plea agreement with prosecutors Wednesday.

Tony Salas, 58, of Bernardo, pleaded no contest to one  count of
attempted contributing to the delinquency of a  minor. He was
originally indicted on one count of  contributing to the delinquency
of a minor, a  fourth-degree felony, and a misdemeanor charge of
tampering with evidence.

District Judge John Pope, who accepted the plea  agreement, sentenced
Salas to 364 days of unsupervised  probation and gave him a
conditional discharge --  meaning that if he successfully completes
his probation  without incident, his record will no longer show a
conviction.

Salas made no comments during the hearing.

Salas' plea agreement comes nearly four months after a  jury was
unable to reach a verdict in the case, causing  a mistrial. The jury
heard testimony from several  people, including the student who said
his former  social studies teacher helped him hide a marijuana pipe
before police brought in a drug-sniffing dog to Belen  Middle School
sometime in January 2005.

Several former students said Salas, who has since  resigned his
position at the middle school, told them  when drug-sniffing dogs were
going to be on the campus.  They also testified that their teacher
told them that,  if they had any drugs or drug paraphernalia, they
could  give it to him so they wouldn't get into trouble.

The student to whom the marijuana piped belonged told  the jury that
Salas had taken him out of class and  asked if he had "anything" on
him because the dogs were  coming to school. The student, who no
longer lives in  Belen, told him he had a marijuana pipe in his pocket.

The student testified that he walked outside with Salas  where the
teacher told him that he could hide the pipe  in this truck. The
student also testified that, after  the teacher pointed out which
truck was his, the  teenager walked to the parking lot and placed the
pipe  in the bed of the vehicle underneath a piece of wood.

According to the boy, Salas told him that he could get  it back at the
end of the day.

Under cross-examination by Salas's defense attorney,  the student said
that Salas had been his favorite  teacher, saying that he could always
talk to the  instructor and he would help him with his schoolwork.

After leaving the witness stand, the student walked up  to Salas, and
the two embraced.

The young man's mother testified that Salas had told  her about the
incident during a parent-teacher  conference several weeks later. She
said she had been  concerned about her son's mood changes and falling
grades and told the former teacher that she was worried  that the boy
might have been smoking marijuana.

She said that Salas told her that he was concerned that  her son was
using marijuana and that there had been a  prior incident when he had
taken him out of class and  asked if he had anything on him. The
mother said Salas  told her about the incident when he allowed her son
to  hide the pipe in the truck.

""I hate this is happening because he's (Salas) is a  good man," the
boy's mother had told the jury. "But  just because he's a good man
doesn't mean that he  didn't do anything wrong.

"I wish the best for Mr. Salas, but this happened. I  think you're an
awesome person, Mr. Salas, but you know  we had that conversation."
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