VISTA — A former employee at an Encinitas middle school who was arrested last year on suspicion of molesting a 12-year-old girl has pleaded guilty to multiple charges.
Omar Hernandez Galeana, 22, entered a guilty plea on Tuesday in Vista Superior Court and is facing a stipulated 28-year sentence as part of a plea deal. He remains in custody ahead of his sentencing hearing on June 4.
Galeana was working as a campus supervisor at Diegueño Middle School in Encinitas when he was arrested in March 2024 on suspicion of meeting with a 12-year-old female student and sexually assaulting her at an off-campus location.
He faced nine initial charges, including multiple counts of aggravated sexual assault of a child and forcible lewd acts upon a child, furnishing cannabis to a minor, and contributing to the delinquency of a minor.
He ended up pleading guilty on Tuesday to three accounts of forcible lewd acts upon a child.
After Galeana’s arrest, a lawsuit was filed against him and the San Dieguito Union High School District on behalf of the young girl he allegedly molested, stating that the district missed multiple “red flags” regarding his behavior toward the girl.
The lawsuit claimed that Galeana sexually assaulted the girl both on and off campus, and that he frequently drove the girl and other students in his car, regularly communicated with students over text messages and social media applications, and often spent time alone with students in secluded areas of the campus.
School district officials have maintained that the district “took immediate action to remove him from employment and work cooperatively with law enforcement” once they learned of the allegations.
The Coast News wire service contributed to this report.
