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."