A former Brea Olinda Unified School Board trustee now faces criminal charges for allegedly sending messages to a 15-year-old boy and a 17-year-old boy, calling them sexy and asking them to send him photos.

Christopher Gerard Becerra, 42, of Brea is facing two felony counts of contacting a minor with intent to commit a specified offense, along with misdemeanor counts of annoying or molesting a person believed to be a child and attempting to induce false testimony, the Orange County District Attorney’s Office said in a news release on Thursday, April 9.

“The sexual exploitation of children will never be tolerated,” Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer said in a written statement. “It is unconscionable that someone elected to help administer the education of our children would prey on children for his own sexual gratification.”

Becerra’s attorney, Jacqueline Goodman, denied that he was guilty of the charges.

“While we have refrained from public comment, the level of misinformation surrounding this case compels us to set the record straight,” Goodman said in a statement. “My client served as a school board member — not a teacher — and thus had no direct contact with students. He is neither accused of any inappropriate touching, nor of communicating with a minor for the purpose of arranging a meeting…

“Instead, the charges are based on disputed online communications that must be evaluated by neutral decision-makers — not by politicians’ allegations presented in a press release meant to inflame,” the defense attorney added. “These misconceptions underscore why this case must be decided in a courtroom, not the internet.”

Becerra’s seat on the Brea Olinda Unified School Board was declared vacant last month, after he failed to show up to multiple meetings in the wake of the allegations becoming public.

Becerra was still a board member when prosecutors allege he sent the messages to the two teens.

In October 2025, while Becerra was in Las Vegas with a school district employee, prosecutors allege he sent social media messages to a 15-year-old student who had transferred out of the district. He asked the boy to send him a photo and called him “sexy,” prosecutors allege, even after being told the boy was 15-years-old.

The 15-year-old later alerted his father about the messages. Becerra, after he was interviewed by police, asked the district employee who had been with him on the trip to falsely tell investigators that Becerra had lost his phone in Vegas, prosecutors added.

Prosecutors also allege that Becerra — between October 2025 and November 2025 — sent text messages to a 17-year-old boy in which he also asked for a photo and called the teen “sexy.”

Becerra appeared in court on Wednesday but did not enter a plea.

He worked for the school district between 2010 and 2018 and was later employed by the Orange County Department of Education before starting an educational consulting agency. He was elected to the board in 2022 to represent the district’s Trustee Area 4.

District leaders, as well as his fellow school board colleagues, were limited in how they could respond to the allegations following his arrest, since Becerra was an elected official and not an employee. School board President Carrie Flanders, during a public meeting, described feeling “a wave of emotions — from shock and disbelief to anger, disappointment and an overwhelming sense of betrayal.

“The alleged actions of trustee Becerra do not reflect the values of this board, our superintendent, district leadership or the dedicated professionals who serve our students every day,” Flanders told attendees of the board meeting.

Officials have also said that Becerra has been notified that he is not allowed on any of the district’s campuses.

The school board is in the middle of a process to appoint a replacement to fill Becerra’s Trustee Area 4 seat. Applicants will be interviewed at a board meeting on April 20.

Staff writer Mona Darwish contributed to this report.