Former teacher accused of relationship with student to stand trial

A former music teacher at Indio’s Desert Ridge Academy was ordered today to stand trial on charges of engaging in sex acts with one of his underage female students.

Ruben Jesse Flores, 31, of Indio, is facing eight counts of lewd acts with a child, four counts of sexual penetration with a foreign object and two counts of oral copulation with a minor.

Flores was arrested on April 30, 2018, after the mother of the alleged victim found “suggestive texts on her daughter’s cell phone and notified police,” according to Sgt. Daniel Marshall of the Indio Police Department.

Police obtained statements from both the suspect and the unnamed middle school student “regarding several incidents of unlawful sexual contact,” Marshall alleged.

Flores, who was released a day after his arrest on $55,000 bail, is no longer employed by the Desert Sands Unified School District.

In April, the girl’s family filed a civil suit against Desert Sands Unified, alleging the school district should have known about the former teacher’s relationship with their child.