Police investigated Santa Monica middle school teacher in 2006

A Santa Monica middle school teacher who allegedly sexually molested five of his female students was investigated by police, but not charged, for the same crime in 2006, officials said today.

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

Santa Monica police also said today that at least one of the alleged molestations had been caught on videotape. Police would not discuss any previous investigations.

Thomas Arthur Beltran, 60, pleaded not guilty Tuesday to 14 felony counts, 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 the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office.

Police said today that Beltran could face more charges.

“At this point the investigators are interviewing additional people that have made themselves known either to us” or to the district attorney’s office, said Lt. Darrell Lowe of the Santa Monica Police Department.

Beltran, who is married and has worked at Lincoln Middle School for two decades, taught English as a second language to seventh-graders. He was arrested Saturday and jailed on $1.1-million bail. Lowe said he has no previous criminal history.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Robin Sax Katzenstein said in court Tuesday that she had videotape of Beltran molesting at least one student in his class, said Shiara M. Davila, spokeswoman for the district attorney’s office. A police investigation that began Friday led to the discovery of the videotape, Lowe said. He would not elaborate on its source, but said that it was not from a school surveillance camera or made by law enforcement officials.

At the prosecutor’s request, Superior Court Judge Keith Schwartz raised Beltran’s bail to $3.3 million, Davila said. Beltran is scheduled to be back in court June 6.

The 30-year school district employee was arrested after a 12-year-old student reported the alleged abuse to her parents, police said. She later repeated her account to detectives.

Investigators interviewed Beltran’s other students and identified three who were allegedly victimized, police said. The molestations occurred during school hours and the suspected abuse of one student continued for more than a year, authorities said.

On Monday, police said others had come forward with complaints.

“We do believe there are others out there,” Lowe said.

According to court documents, the alleged abuse took place as far back as Dec. 1, 2004, and as recently as April 30. The time span for each count ranged from one day of alleged sexual abuse to 14 months. If convicted, Beltran faces a maximum sentence of life in prison.

“The investigation may disclose that this has been a pattern for an unknown number of years,” Lowe said. “That’s why we’re trying to encourage former students, former parents, etc., to come forward and provide any information to us so we can get a proper timeframe on Mr. Beltran’s activities.”

About 200 parents gathered in the school auditorium Monday night to discuss Beltran’s arrest with school officials and police. Principal Tristan Komlos told parents that the school would institute an open-door policy when students were alone with teachers.

District officials declined to say whether Beltran had been accused of improper behavior or disciplined in the past.

The Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District uses an electronic database called Live Scan to track the history of district employees through their fingerprints and to alert school officials of any new criminal charges. The district started using the system in 1997 and officials never added employees to the database that were hired before its adoption, said Mike Matthews, assistant superintendent for human resources.

Many parents said they were glad to see that the school responded quickly to the accusations. But others said they were disappointed.

“This is supposed to be Santa Monica,” said Nereida Gilbuena, the mother of a seventh-grader. “We sweat for this school, we begged for this school. This is the cream of the crop. We’re told you cannot get any better than Lincoln Middle School. That’s what we’re told, and they failed us.”

tami.abdollah@latimes.com