Teacher Faces 2 New Charges of Sexual Assault

A Saugus elementary school teacher who is already facing charges of sexually assaulting a colleague has been charged with attacking two other females, including a 17-year-old he met while on duty as a Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy, authorities said Monday.

Prosecutors filed four additional felony charges Friday against Edward Keith Culhane, 35, of Santa Clarita, who worked as a sheriff’s deputy from January, 1982, to August, 1991.

Culhane is charged with raping the teen-ager in June, 1990, after luring her to a Comfort Inn in Lakewood on the pretense of helping her with a college English paper, according to Deputy Dist. Atty. Robert B. Foltz Jr.

While on patrol early one morning, Culhane, who worked out of the Lennox station, pulled over the car the girl, then 17, was driving and struck up a conversation with her, according to the prosecutor. Culhane gave his phone number to the college student, who later called the deputy and agreed to meet him for breakfast.

At breakfast, Culhane allegedly offered to help the girl with her homework, and the two went to a Lakewood motel that was made available to deputies who had court appearances in the area.

At the motel, prosecutors said Culhane raped the girl.

The girl filed a complaint with the Sheriff’s Department, which was investigated, but no charges were brought until recently.

Culhane left the Sheriff’s Department 14 months after the alleged assault. Citing policy, sheriff’s officials would not discuss the circumstances of his departure, but Foltz said it was the culmination of a “lengthy investigation” into numerous charges, including the alleged rape of the girl.

“He left as part of an agreement to resolve some disciplinary actions he had,” Foltz said, adding that the agreement also resolved a workers’ compensation claim that Culhane had filed.

A single count of sexual battery, also filed last week, alleges that Culhane touched a 22-year-old baby-sitter in a lewd manner. “He got sexually out of line with her,” Foltz said.

The incident occurred in early 1992, several months after he left the Sheriff’s Department.

Foltz said Culhane often told women he met that his marriage was failing.

“It was like he was a 24-hour womanizer,” the prosecutor said.

Culhane’s attorney, Kenneth Leon Schreiber of Los Angeles, declined to comment on the case, saying he will not receive any paperwork on the new charges until he appears in court with his client.

In all, Culhane faces seven felony counts, including three charges related to an alleged assault on a teacher he worked with at Santa Clarita Elementary School in Saugus.

A preliminary hearing on the three charges is scheduled for Thursday, but Schreiber said he will postpone it so he can become familiar with the new allegations.

Schreiber said he would bring Culhane into Newhall Municipal Court before Thursday for an arraignment on the new charges.

Charges against Culhane were first filed two months ago after a teacher alleged that he attacked her on Nov. 5, 1993, in a classroom after students had been dismissed for the day.

The 44-year-old teacher has since filed a $1-million claim against the Saugus Union School District, alleging that she was sexually assaulted and that district officials directed the woman not to report the incident to police.

District officials have said that Culhane was put on paid leave Jan. 14, pending the results of the criminal investigation. Culhane was in his first semester at the elementary school when the woman made the accusations.

In a letter written earlier this year to the Saugus Union School District Board of Education, Culhane denied the woman’s charge against him.

Culhane is currently free after posting $50,000 bail.