A former Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department deputy has been charged with sexually assaulting a teenage girl and providing her with methamphetamine, as stated by the L.A. County District Attorney's office. Retired deputy Benny Vicente Caluya Jr. and his alleged accomplice, Clifford Leimana Abihai, were said to have picked up the girl while she was walking alone in Lancaster between Aug. 27 and 28, according to KTLA.
Walking alone, the former deputy and Abihai were alleged to have taken the girl back to Caluya's residence after giving her meth where the purported sexual assault occurred. Charged with one felony count of lewd act upon a child aged 14 or 15, and a felony count for sale or furnishing a controlled substance to a minor, Caluya now faces a potential maximum sentence of nine years and eight months in prison. Abihai has been charged with the latter and could receive up to nine years if convicted. Both men pleaded not guilty at their arraignment on Sept. 30, as detailed in a news release from the District Attorney's website.
District Attorney George Gascón highlighted the gravity of the allegations against a former law enforcement officer. "It is particularly egregious that a former law enforcement officer sexually preyed upon a teenage girl and along with his accomplice, supplied her with methamphetamine," said DA Gascón. "These reprehensible acts are utterly unacceptable, [and] we have a solemn obligation to ensure her voice is not only heard but amplified," he mentioned, emphasizing the office’s commitment to support the survivor through the Bureau of Victim Services.
Released on bonds posted in early September, Caluya's was set at $250,000 and Abihai's at $100,000. The case remains with the District Attorney’s Office’s Sex Crimes Division and the LASD’s Special Victims Bureau, which is in charge of investigating it, with a preliminary hearing for the defendants scheduled for November 12. As obtained in the statement by the District Attorney's office, the bonds granted Caluya a release, on September 3, and Abihai's release followed on September 5.
