VAN NUYS : Judge Sentences Man Who Left Baby Locked in Car

A high school English teacher who left his 20-month-old son in a locked car in 100-degree heat was sentenced Thursday to time already served in jail, 100 hours of community service in a children’s hospital and three years’ probation in a plea agreement with prosecutors.

Dennis Karl Fischer, 34, of Paramount, avoided a preliminary hearing on a felony child endangerment charge by pleading guilty to the reduced charge of misdemeanor child endangerment. A felony conviction would have carried a maximum six-year prison term.

After imposing sentence on Fischer, Van Nuys Municipal Court Judge Jessica Perrin Silvers told him that “something could have happened,” as a result of the incident. “How lucky you are that it didn’t.”

Fischer, who teaches 10th- and 12th-grade English and is the department chairman at Fremont High School in South-Central Los Angeles, also was ordered to pay $100 to the state restitution fund and to complete a 13-session parenting class.