Innocent Plea in Molestation Case

A part-time Harbor College karate instructor pleaded not guilty Wednesday to charges that he molested two preteen students after taking the girls from a classroom on the pretext of filming a defense movie for children.

Lewis Calliham, 31, of Wilmington faces five counts of committing lewd acts on a child, said Detective Michael Jacobellis of the Los Angeles Police Department’s Sexually Exploited Child Unit. Calliham was arrested Friday and released Wednesday on $25,000 bail. He faces a preliminary hearing June 18.

Jacobellis said police began investigating Calliham’s actions after the mother of one of the students, an 11-year-old girl who lives on the Palos Verdes Peninsula, complained to Harbor College officials about him.

The mother said that Calliham had asked her daughter to join a group of students at a Redondo Beach karate studio for the filming of a movie but that the girl said she was the only student present.

College officials relayed the complaint to a Harbor Division detective, who remembered that Calliham had been the subject of a similar complaint two years ago involving a 7-year-old Wilmington girl. No charges were filed in that case.

Investigators questioned the 11-year-old, who said Calliham had forced her to masturbate him. Police then talked to other students in Calliham’s classes, including a 10-year-old Wilmington girl who reported a similar incident.