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VENTURA, Calif. (AP) - A Southern California jury has acquitted a man charged with misdemeanors for paying high school students to spit in his face while yelling profanities for his sexual gratification.

Ventura County prosecutors says jurors deliberated less than an hour on Tuesday before finding 41-year-old Charles Hersel not guilty on four counts of annoying and molesting a child.

If convicted, Hersel was facing a year in jail and would have been required to register as a sex offender.

Hersel was arrested in November 2009 at a Thousand Oaks mall.

Westlake High School students say Hersel paid them to yell profanities, spit and slap his face.

The prosecutor told jurors it was for sexual gratification, but defense attorney Ron Bamieh says there was no sexual intent.

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