Teacher was instructed not to touch students
AIRPORT COURTHOUSE A Lincoln Middle School teacher charged on 14 sexual molestation counts was investigated in 2006 following similar allegations, according to a document made available by the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District on Wednesday.
Thomas Beltran, a teacher at the middle school for the past two decades, was interviewed by Santa Monica Police Department investigators stemming from claims of inappropriate physical conduct but was never charged because there was insufficient evidence to tie him to a crime, according to a statement by the district on Wednesday. Beltran teaches English as a second language at the school.
The claims from the 2006 investigation have since been filed as criminal charges and are included in the current case, according to Sandi Gibbons, spokeswoman with the L.A. District Attorney’s Office.
Beltran, a veteran public school teacher in the district for 30 years, was arrested in Culver City on Saturday, a day after Santa Monica police investigators interviewed a 12-year-old student who claimed she was sexually abused. During the interview, detectives concluded that there could possibly be other victims, according to the SMPD.
The district on Tuesday was notified of the March 2006 investigation by the SMPD, receiving a correspondence between former Lincoln Principal Kathy Scott and Det. Lloyd Gladden.
According to the document, a student reported to Assistant Principal Francis Costanzo on March 14, 2006 that she was uncomfortable remaining in Beltran’s class because of the way he was touching her. The letter is dated March 30, 2006.
School officials removed the student from Beltran’s class and talked to the teacher about his contact with students.
“I met with Mr. Beltran... to inform him of (the student’s) complaint,” Scott states in the letter. “Mr. Beltran was shocked at the accusation and was upset that his actions had been interpreted as inappropriate.”
The letter concludes by stating that Scott instructed the teacher not to touch any of his female students in his classroom to “protect himself from any further misinterpretation.”
“Mr. Beltran was in total agreement with my request,” Scott said in the letter.
Scott left the school in June of that year because she moved out of the area.
“This is all new to us,” Mike Matthews, the assistant superintendent for human resources, said in an interview on Wednesday. “We’re calling some previous employees to see what their awareness was of the issue.”
The 2006 investigation is the only one made aware to the district thus far, Matthews said.
He added that the district was able to disclose the letter because it came from police files, not the school’s, which would’ve made it a confidential personnel matter.
Beltran, a Los Angeles resident, was charged and arraigned at the Airport Courthouse on Tuesday on 14 counts of molestation, 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. He is being held on $3.3 million bail.
Detectives had interviewed five girls at the time of Beltran’s arraignment and more charges are possible as the case is still under investigation. Authorities believe at least one of the girls was molested for more than a year.
During the arraignment, the prosecution said it has videotape evidence of one of the alleged instances of molestation.
Beltran is scheduled to appear back in court on June 6 for a preliminary hearing.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on May 8, 2008. Read the original PDF.