Former deputy charged with sexual assault

A former Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy has been charged with sexually assaulting a teenage girl this summer in Lancaster.
The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office announced that Benny Vincente Caluya Jr., 68, is charged with one felony count each of lewd act on a child aged 14 or 15 and sale or furnishing a controlled substance to a minor.
Co-defendant Clifford Leimana Abihai, 49, is charged with one felony count of sale or furnishing a controlled substance to a minor. He was described last month by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department as Caluya’s nephew.
Both men have pleaded not guilty and are free on bond that was posted last month, according to the District Attorney’s Office.
The two men allegedly picked up the teenager as she walked alone in Lancaster between Aug. 27 and Aug. 28 and provided her with methamphetamine, according to the District Attorney’s Office.
Caluya is accused of sexually assaulting the girl at his home in Lancaster.
“Benny Caluya separated from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department in 2001,” according to a statement released last month by the department.
Caluya first joined the department as a reserve deputy in 1979, according to the Los Angeles Times, which cited records from the state’s Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training.
Caluya then worked as a deputy at the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department for a little more than a year before returning to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department as a deputy in 1982, The Times reported.
In 2001, Caluya resigned “for unclear reasons,” according to The Times, which reported that state records show his peace officer certification is no longer active.
Caluya and Abihai are due back in a Lancaster courtroom Nov. 12, when a date is scheduled to be set then for a hearing to determine if there is sufficient evidence to allow the case against them to proceed to trial.
In a statement announcing the case, District Attorney George Gascón said, “Today, we stand firmly in solidarity with this courageous teenage survivor, a young girl whose vulnerability was exploited. 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.”