SAN DIEGO -- A fifth-grade teacher at a City Heights school pleaded guilty Thursday to statutory rape for having sex with a 12-year-old male student whose family she had moved in with.

Adrienne Feistel, 36, who had taught at Rosa Parks Elementary School in City Heights, faces up to three years in prison when she is to be sentenced March 18 by Judge Richard Whitney.

She was about to be retried on 17 charges alleging she molested two boys, carrying a sentence of 30 years behind bars, before her change of plea.

The judge declared a mistrial Dec. 15, finding that one juror had committed misconduct by watching media coverage of the case, and another told fellow jurors she would decide the case by her heart, no matter what the evidence showed.

Prosecutor Wendy Patrick alleged that Feistel became close to the victims' families before molesting their children.

She said Feistel became friends with the 16-year-old sister of the 12-year-old before she began molesting him in 2006, and that she moved in with his family when she separated from her husband.

The boy, now 15, testified that Feistel came into his room at night and molested him.

He said the first time Feistel got in bed with him, she kissed him, and that during a third late-night visit, Feistel touched his "privates." He said she told him her mouth would "feel good" on his privates, and during another visit she orally copulated him.

He said that while she was living with his family they began having sexual relations, and that she had to move out after his mother came in his room one morning and caught them in bed together.

He said the sexual relationship continued until he tired of it, and that he told three friends about Feistel but didn't tell any adults until August 2008, when police were called to his home to break up an argument between his mother and sister.

The other alleged victim said he had sex with Feistel before he turned 18, Patrick said.

Before the change of plea, defense attorney Anna Yum asserted the first boy's mother falsely accused Feistel of molesting her son to protect herself and regain control of her relationship with her older daughter.

The day of the mother-daughter argument, the daughter called Feistel to "save me from my abusive mother," Yum told the jury.

She challenged the credibility of witnesses and asserted their testimony was based on "gossip and innuendo."

Yum said the other alleged victim did not tell Feistel he was under 18 and that there was a lack of evidence in the case.