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LOS ANGELES (Map, News) - A longtime middle school teacher was charged Tuesday with sexually molesting five female students, and a prosecutor told a court there was videotape evidence.
Thomas Arthur Beltran, 60, of Santa Monica, pleaded not guilty to 14 counts during his arraignment in Superior Court. Bail was set at $3.3 million and he remained jailed.
Police arrested Beltran on Saturday after a 12-year-old girl from Lincoln Middle School in Santa Monica reported the alleged abuse to her parents. The investigation led to four other girls.
Beltran, who teaches English as a second language, has been with the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District for 30 years, including 20 years at Lincoln.
"In the search warrant that was executed in this case we found the actual videos taken by Mr. Beltran," prosecutor Deputy District Attorney Robin Sax Katzenstein told Judge Keith Schwartz.
"Here we have a case where virtually every female student that has come into contact with the defendant has had some sort of inappropriate touching, even by the defendant's own admission of being a huggy, touchy kind of person," the prosecutor said.
Outside court, the prosecutor described the video as "helping our investigation and corroborating some of the charges in this case."
Beltran could be sentenced to life in prison if convicted of the charges, which include committing a lewd act on a child, continuous sexual abuse and sexual penetration of a foreign object on a child under 14.
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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8:34 PM MST on Fri., May. 9, 2008 re: "Santa Monica teacher initially investigated in 2006"
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9:36 PM MST on Sun., May. 4, 2008 re: "Santa Monica teacher held on suspicion of molestations"
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Examiner Reader said:
I worked with Beltran a long time ago. I found him to be friendly as well. If he is found guilty, I think we were all fooled by him. I worry about his wife and how she is dealing with this accusation and the lingering sadness of having lost her only child.
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Lincoln Student said:
just like FYI does any1 no that its true 4sure???? I mean i'm not saying its not true but i mean hes such a nice person... so think about ittttttt
6 agree | 0 disagree
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