Teacher Charged With 36 Child Molestation Counts : Abuse: The suspect was arrested after complaints from pupils he had taught in his first-grade class at a Los Angeles school.

A Los Angeles elementary schoolteacher was charged with 36 counts of child molestation Wednesday for allegedly committing lewd acts over the last three years on girls in his first-grade class.

Louis Moreno, 49, of Baldwin Park was charged with sexually molesting 13 girls in his class at the 96th Street Elementary School since 1989, when he began teaching in the Los Angeles Unified School District.

At a hearing Wednesday in Compton Municipal Court, Commissioner Ellen C. Deshazer set bail at $990,000 for Moreno, who is married and has five children.

One of his students complained in January that he had molested her, but school officials said they could find no corroboration for her complaint, prosecutors said. The student was transferred to another class, and Moreno continued teaching at the school at 1471 E. 96th St.

In June, another child complained of having been molested. Moreno was removed from the classroom and put on paid administrative leave, according to the criminal complaint filed against him. School officials interviewed every girl he had taught and found 13 who said they had been molested.

Moreno was arrested Tuesday at a school board office in Gardena where he had been assigned since June 4. He is charged with fondling girls on their chests and between their legs, and with two counts of vaginal penetration with a foreign object.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Sindee Kerker said she could not say if Moreno has a prior criminal record. She said he had worked as a teacher’s aide at another school before becoming a teacher, and investigators are checking to determine if any students there have complaints about him.

Until 1988, he had worked in retail sales, Kerker said.