Ex-Teacher Gets 18 Months for Sex Abuse of D.C. Teen

A former teacher at Young America Works Public Charter School in the District was sentenced to 18 months in jail Monday for sexually abusing a student last school year, authorities said.

Ricardo A. Cuaderes, 57, of the 3900 block of Normandy Woods Drive in Ellicott City, pleaded guilty to one count of child sexual abuse, Howard County authorities said. Prosecutors said Cuaderes drove the boy, then 14, to Cuaderes's home one Saturday in fall 2008 and sexually abused him.

Authorities said Cuaderes had asked the victim's mother whether the teen could help decorate the school that day.

Howard Circuit Court Judge Diane O. Leasure sentenced Cuaderes to nine years in prison, with all but 18 months suspended. She ordered him to serve five years of supervised probation after his release and barred him from unsupervised contact with children younger than 18 during that period. He will also have to register as a sex offender.