- Local
- Community
- Journalism
Support the independent voice of Phoenix and help keep the future of New Times free.
A former teacher at a Mesa elementary school was sentenced to 15 years in prison today after pleading guilty last month to charges that he attempted to molest a 7-year-old girl in the band room of the school where he worked, court officials announced this afternoon.
The girl was a student at the school.
Michael Lamonica, a former music teacher at Mesa's Brinton Elementary School, pleaded guilty to four counts of attempted child molestation.
Lamonica was arrested in March of last year after the then-12-year-old victim came forward about the abuse.
The girl told police that Lamonica molested her twice between January 2005 and November 2005.
Lamonica would ask the girl, then in third grade, to help him clean the band room after class. It was then that Lamonica would molest her, she told police.
Lamonica has been a teacher with the Mesa Public School District since August of 1992. In addition to teaching at Brinton Elementary, he taught at Madison, Salk, and Edison elementary schools before moving to Brinton in 2001.
Keep Phoenix New Times Free... Since we started Phoenix New Times, it has been defined as the free, independent voice of Phoenix, and we would like to keep it that way. Offering our readers free access to incisive coverage of local news, food and culture. Producing stories on everything from political scandals to the hottest new bands, with gutsy reporting, stylish writing, and staffers who've won everything from the Society of Professional Journalists' Sigma Delta Chi feature-writing award to the Casey Medal for Meritorious Journalism. But with local journalism's existence under siege and advertising revenue setbacks having a larger impact, it is important now more than ever for us to rally support behind funding our local journalism. You can help by participating in our "I Support" membership program, allowing us to keep covering Phoenix with no paywalls.