Santa Clarita / Antelope Valley : Man Pleads Not Guilty in Assaults
A Santa Clarita man who is a former elementary school teacher and sheriff’s deputy pleaded not guilty Monday to charges of sexually assaulting three women, including a co-worker in a classroom.
Edward Keith Culhane, 35, entered the plea to seven counts including forcible rape, sexual battery by restraint and rape by foreign object. The alleged victims are a woman, then 17, whom Culhane is charged with raping in June, 1990, when he was a Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department deputy; a 44-year-old teacher and a woman, then 19, whom he had employed as a baby-sitter.
Culhane remains free on $50,000 bail. A pretrial hearing is scheduled Oct. 12 in Superior Court in Van Nuys. No trial date has been set.
Culhane’s arraignment had been postponed for two weeks because he said preliminary legal battles left him unable to afford an attorney.
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