Five more Santa Monica molestation complaints come forth

Officials said today that they are questioning five additional people who complained that they were sexually molested, perhaps as long ago as 1998, by a Santa Monica middle school teacher who has been charged with molesting five of his female students.

“At least five more victims have come forward and are being interviewed by police right now,” said Jane Robison, spokeswoman for the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office.

Lincoln Middle School teacher Thomas Arthur Beltran, 60, pleaded not guilty Tuesday to 14 felony counts of sexual molestation, including eight counts of a lewd act on a child, three counts of continuous sexual abuse and three counts of sexual penetration with a foreign object on a child under 14.

According to court documents, the alleged abuse of the students took place from as long ago as Dec. 1, 2004, to April 30 of this year. Police said at least one incident was on a videotape that police obtained in a search during the investigation.

On Wednesday, officials said the teacher had been investigated by police, but not charged, in connection with the same crime in 2006.

“There was a lack of evidence at the time to file charges,” Robison said. “But based on new allegations, new victims and more evidence, sufficient evidence was developed to include the previous alleged victim” in this case.

Officials of the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District released a letter Wednesday that outlined the 2006 incident. The letter, dated March 14, 2006, was written by then-Principal Kathy Scott to police and detailed her response to the incident. Police gave district officials a copy of the letter this week, said Mike Matthews, district assistant superintendent for human resources.

The letter states that a female student reported to Assistant Principal Francis Costanzo that she “felt uncomfortable being in Mr. Beltran’s class because of the way he touched her.” Scott removed the student from the class and talked to Beltran about the incident, the letter says.

Beltran “was shocked at the accusation and was upset that his actions had been misinterpreted as inappropriate,” according to the letter. Scott wrote that the teacher was warned “not to touch any of the female students in his class in order to protect himself from any further misinterpretation.”

Santa Monica police told district officials Tuesday there had been insufficient evidence after an investigation to pursue a criminal case against Beltran, a 30-year district employee. “The letter was not in the teacher’s personnel file,” Matthews said. “Obviously, the principal and the police were talking. … I’ve examined the entire personnel file, and there is no other complaint in there against him.”

Matthews said the district was trying to reach Scott, who no longer works in the Santa Monica district. Scott did not return phone calls to her office throughout the week.

The school district’s attorney, Gary Gibeaut, said today that he was trying to get a copy of the student’s statement on the incident. Gibeaut said he also will speak with Scott and Costanzo. A district investigation will occur after the police have finished their investigation, Gibeaut said.

“Any investigation the district does conduct, and there will be one conducted independently, will certainly await whatever law enforcement and the D.A.’s office will need to do to pursue the criminal matter,” Gibeaut said.

He said no lawsuits have been filed against the district.

“That letter is all at present that I know about what the school district knew back in 2006 and how it was handled,” Gibeaut said.

Beltran, who is married and has worked at Lincoln Middle School for two decades, taught English as a second language. He was arrested Saturday and remains in jail in lieu of $3.3-million bail. If convicted, Beltran faces a maximum sentence of life in prison.

He has no criminal history, police said.

He was taken into custody after a 12-year-old student reported the alleged abuse to her parents, police said. Then other students were interviewed.

School Board President Oscar de la Torre said he was shocked to hear about the 2006 investigation and that he was never informed of it even though he was a board member at that time. Educators are mandated by the state penal code to report child abuse to authorities.

The school district has a four-sentence child abuse reporting policy that requires teachers to report incidents to nurses or school principals, who then “assume responsibility.”

“Just from the look of it … we do not have the type of protocols and procedures and we’re not thoroughly investigating on our own internally, aside from what the Police Department’s doing,” de la Torre said. “And I think we need to revisit that.”

In contrast to Santa Monica’s one-page policy, which cites the state penal code, the Los Angeles Unified School District has a six-page policy addressing “employee-to-student sexual abuse and related discipline.” On Tuesday, L.A. Unified removed two of its administrators for failing to investigate allegations of sexual misconduct in the case of former Assistant Principal Stephen Thomas Rooney, 39, who has been ordered to stand trial on charges of molesting three students.

On Wednesday, Lincoln parent Leslie Berliant, like some other parents, e-mailed the school principal and district superintendent about the Beltran case.

“I am horrified and saddened to think about what these children endured under the watch of Lincoln’s administration,” she wrote. “I would like to know what the school knew and when, and why systems were in place, such as ignoring closed doors, that put our children in jeopardy.”

Principal Tristan Komlos told about 200 parents at a Monday night meeting that the school will begin to institute an open-door policy when students are alone with teachers. Matthews said the policy may be extended districtwide.

 tami.abdollah@latimes.com