EMPIRE, CA – A teacher with the Empire Union School District has been arrested after two students at Glick Middle School reported being inappropriately touched, according to the Stanislaus County Sheriff’s Office.
On October 22, 2025, at approximately 1:30 p.m., investigators from the Sheriff’s Special Victims Unit responded to the campus after school staff notified law enforcement of the allegations. The inappropriate contact allegedly occurred during the 2024–2025 school year, with the most recent incident reported on October 20.
Detectives identified 52-year-old Javier Villanueva, primarily an 8th grade English teacher, as the suspect. He was arrested near his home in Patterson with assistance from Patterson Police Services and booked into the Stanislaus County Jail. Villanueva faces two counts of lewd acts with a child under the age of 14 and is being held on $500,000 bail.
The investigation remains ongoing as detectives work to determine if additional victims exist or if further evidence can be recovered.
Anyone with information is urged to contact the Stanislaus County Sheriff’s Office at (209) 525-7117 or submit a tip anonymously through Stanislaus Area Crime Stoppers at 1-866-602-7463 or stancrimetips.org.
Due to California confidentiality laws, no further information about the victims will be released.
