When jurors returned to a West L.A. courtroom to ship their verdict in a baby intercourse abuse case earlier this month, one key particular person was lacking: the defendant.
John Kaleel — a veteran piano trainer who has given classes to the households of a number of Hollywood energy gamers — confronted allegations that he sexually abused one in every of his college students in 2013.
Kaleel, 69, pleaded no contest in 2016 to committing a lewd act with a teenage pupil, however later fought to have the plea overturned after realizing the felony conviction can be grounds for deportation to his native Australia. L.A. County prosecutors then retried him and, whereas the case was pending, he was launched on his personal recognizance.
On Oct. 8 — the identical day jurors within the Airport Courthouse discovered him responsible of 5 counts of sexual abuse — Kaleel slipped overseas, in accordance with a press release from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Division and court docket information.
The Sheriff’s Division didn’t say the place they believed Kaleel had fled to. Court docket information present prosecutors filed an software to hunt an “Extradition/Fugitive Hardcopy Warrant,” however it contained no particulars about how he absconded and a spokesperson for the district lawyer’s workplace declined to reply questions.
Kaleel’s lawyer, Kate Hardie, stated she final noticed her shopper when she drove him house from court docket on Oct. 7, the day earlier than the decision was handed down, and has had no contact with him since. Kaleel has been a lawful everlasting resident of the U.S. because the Eighties, in accordance with Hardie. Makes an attempt by The Occasions to contact Kaleel have been unsuccessful.
A spokeswoman for the district lawyer’s workplace declined to debate what steps it could take to get Kaleel again in custody in Los Angeles. Hardie stated her shopper faces no less than a decade in state jail at sentencing.
Hardie accused the district lawyer’s workplace of finishing up a “vindictive prosecution” towards Kaleel, who had already served a yr in jail and hung out in a federal immigration detention heart after his unique plea deal.
Kaleel taught personal classes for greater than a quarter-century in L.A., and his shoppers included “Hollywood industry professionals and students who have pursued successful music careers,” in accordance with his web site. The online web page boasted testimonials from the creators of critically acclaimed tv collection, together with “Mad Men” and “Orange Is the New Black,” who praised his work with their kids.
Emmy-award profitable animation director Genndy Tartakovsky, who created a number of well-known cartoons, together with “Dexter’s Laboratory” and “Samurai Jack,” additionally referred to Kaleel as a “gift,” in accordance with the web site.
“I have never seen my three children become more inspired or enthusiastic for anything as much as they did for your piano classes,” Tartakovsky stated, in accordance with an earlier model of Kaleel’s enterprise web site.
The testimonials disappeared from the web site on Monday, after The Occasions started contacting representatives for these quoted.
Spokespersons for Jenji Kohan, who created “Orange Is the New Black,” and Matthew Weiner, the author behind “Mad Men,” each denied giving Kaleel any endorsements or the permission to submit any touch upon his web site. A consultant for Tartakovsky declined to remark. Court docket information present Tartakovsky’s spouse and one in every of his kids, a former pupil of Kaleel’s, testified on the trainer’s behalf at trial.
“Mr. Kaleel has always maintained his innocence and that he took his initial plea bargain on the advice of counsel to avoid a harsher sentence should he lose at trial,” Hardie stated. “He later learned of the immigration consequences when he was placed in an immigration custody facility for 8 [or] 9 months and faced removal proceedings.”
Hardie argued her shopper was the sufferer of a “trial tax,” which references prosecutors typically searching for to punish defendants extra severely after they don’t take a plea. Hardie additionally stated Sheriff’s Division detectives interviewed a lot of Kaleel’s college students “and found no other student who complained of Kaleel being inappropriate.”
The alleged sufferer within the case first contacted the Sheriff’s Division in 2015. The boy stated he was 15 when Kaleel acted inappropriately by asking “to take measurements of [the victim’s] body parts, including his penis,” in accordance with court docket information.
Two years later, Kaleel satisfied the boy that they need to masturbate collectively whereas on a FaceTime name as a result of that’s “what friends do,” information present. In September 2013, prosecutors alleged, Kaleel invited the boy over and so they smoked marijuana collectively earlier than having oral intercourse.
A buddy of the sufferer additionally testified at trial that Kaleel tried to interact in sexual conduct with him, however that depend was not charged, in accordance with court docket information. Hardie stated her shopper had no bodily contact with that boy.
After Kaleel struck a plea deal, he was taken into custody by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and served with a deportation order. He efficiently challenged his elimination on the Board of Immigration Appeals in 2019, in accordance with his former immigration lawyer, Mfon Anthony Ikon.
Ikon stated the U.S. Division of Homeland Safety then deserted its makes an attempt to deport Kaleel.
Representatives for ICE and DHS didn’t reply to a request for remark.
In 2022, Kaleel satisfied a choose to overturn his plea to the preliminary intercourse crimes cost on the grounds that he didn’t absolutely perceive the affect it might need on his immigration standing, information present.
Dmitry Gorin, a former L.A. County prosecutor who has tried circumstances within the space for the final three a long time, stated it’s uncommon — however not unprecedented — for defendants to fade on the eve of a verdict.
“It’s an unusual situation,” he stated. “But people’s conduct can be very unpredictable when they’re facing tremendous time in prison.”
