Woman who admitted sex abuse on YouTube pleads guilty, faces prison

A former Alhambra school administrator whose confession over the phone to molesting a former student was uploaded to YouTube has pleaded guilty in Riverside County as part of a deal with prosecutors.

Andrea Michelle Cardosa, a former vice principal at Alhambra High School, pleaded guilty to two counts of lewd acts on a child under 14 and one count of lewd acts on a child either 14 or 15 years old. She faces up to 10 years and eight months in prison at her sentencing Feb. 9.

Cardosa, 41, resigned from her position last January after the video posted by former student Jamie Carillo, 28, went viral. Soon after, another woman came forth with her own sexual abuse allegations involving Cardosa.

Cardosa admitted to abusing both victims in her guilty plea Friday.

Carillo said Cardosa coerced her into a sexual relationship in the 1990s when she was an eighth-grader at Riverside Middle School, where Cardosa was a teacher. The relationship continued after Carillo moved on to high school.

Cardosa’s second victim was abused in 2009 and 2010 when she was a student in Perris, officials said.

In January, Carillo confronted a woman identifying herself as Cardosa in a phone call that Carillo recorded with a video camera. In the video, the woman admits to the relationship, apologizes to Carillo and expresses regret.

Before she was hired at Alhambra High School, Cardosa worked for three other school districts, serving as a teacher, vice principal and girls’ team coach. Each time she passed all necessary background checks, according to officials at the Riverside Unified, Val Verde Unified and Coalinga-Huron Joint Unified school districts.

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