When jurors returned to a West L.A. courtroom to ship their verdict in a baby intercourse abuse case earlier this month, one key particular person was lacking: the defendant.
John Kaleel — a veteran piano trainer who has given classes to the households of a number of Hollywood energy gamers — confronted allegations that he sexually abused one in all his college students in 2013.
Kaleel, 69, pleaded no contest in 2016 to committing a lewd act with a teenage scholar, however later fought to have the plea overturned after realizing the felony conviction can be grounds for deportation to his native Australia. L.A. County prosecutors then retried him and, whereas the case was pending, he was launched on his personal recognizance.
On Oct. 8 — the identical day jurors within the Airport Courthouse discovered him responsible of 5 counts of sexual abuse — Kaleel slipped overseas, based on a press release from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Division and courtroom information.
The Sheriff’s Division didn’t say the place they believed Kaleel had fled to. Courtroom information present prosecutors filed an software to hunt an “Extradition/Fugitive Hardcopy Warrant,” however it contained no particulars about how he absconded and a spokesperson for the district legal professional’s workplace declined to reply questions.
Kaleel’s legal professional, Kate Hardie, stated she final noticed her consumer when she drove him dwelling from courtroom on Oct. 7, the day earlier than the decision was handed down, and has had no contact with him since. Kaleel has been a lawful everlasting resident of the U.S. because the Eighties, based on Hardie. Makes an attempt by The Instances to contact Kaleel had been unsuccessful.
A spokeswoman for the district legal professional’s workplace declined to debate what steps it might take to get Kaleel again in custody in Los Angeles. Hardie stated her consumer faces at the very least a decade in state jail at sentencing.
Hardie accused the district legal professional’s workplace of finishing up a “vindictive prosecution” in opposition to Kaleel, who had already served a yr in jail and hung out in a federal immigration detention heart after his authentic plea deal.
Kaleel taught non-public classes for greater than a quarter-century in L.A., and his shoppers included “Hollywood business professionals and college students who’ve pursued profitable music careers,” based on his web site. The net web page boasted testimonials from the creators of critically acclaimed tv collection, together with “Mad Males” and “Orange Is the New Black,” who praised his work with their youngsters.
Emmy-award successful animation director Genndy Tartakovsky, who created a number of well-known cartoons, together with “Dexter’s Laboratory” and “Samurai Jack,” additionally referred to Kaleel as a “reward,” based on the web site.
“I’ve by no means seen my three youngsters grow to be extra impressed or enthusiastic for something as a lot as they did in your piano courses,” Tartakovsky stated, based on an earlier model of Kaleel’s enterprise web site.
The testimonials disappeared from the web site on Monday, after The Instances started contacting representatives for these quoted.
Spokespersons for Jenji Kohan, who created “Orange Is the New Black,” and Matthew Weiner, the author behind “Mad Males,” each denied giving Kaleel any endorsements or the permission to put up any touch upon his web site. A consultant for Tartakovsky declined to remark. Courtroom information present Tartakovsky’s spouse and one in all his youngsters, a former scholar of Kaleel’s, testified on the trainer’s behalf at trial.
“Mr. Kaleel has all the time maintained his innocence and that he took his preliminary plea discount on the recommendation of counsel to keep away from a harsher sentence ought to he lose at trial,” Hardie stated. “He later realized of the immigration penalties when he was positioned in an immigration custody facility for 8 [or] 9 months and confronted elimination proceedings.”
Hardie argued her consumer was the sufferer of a “trial tax,” which references prosecutors usually in search of to punish defendants extra severely after they don’t take a plea. Hardie additionally stated Sheriff’s Division detectives interviewed lots of Kaleel’s college students “and located no different scholar who complained of Kaleel being inappropriate.”
For the file:
3:36 p.m. Oct. 23, 2025An earlier model of this story stated John Kaleel’s alleged sufferer reported abuse that occurred when he was between the ages of 15 and 17. Prosecutors say the primary incident occurred when the boy was 12.
The alleged sufferer within the case first contacted the Sheriff’s Division in 2015. The boy stated he was 12 when Kaleel first acted inappropriately by asking “to take measurements of [the victim’s] physique elements, together with his penis,” based on courtroom information.
Kaleel later satisfied the boy that they need to masturbate collectively whereas on a FaceTime name as a result of that’s “what buddies do,” information present. The boy was simply 13 on the time, prosecutors stated.
When the sufferer was 15, prosecutors allege, Kaleel invited him over in September 2013 and so they smoked marijuana collectively earlier than having oral intercourse.
A buddy of the sufferer additionally testified at trial that Kaleel tried to interact in sexual conduct with him, however that rely was not charged, based on courtroom information. Hardie stated her consumer had no bodily contact with that boy.
After Kaleel struck a plea deal, he was taken into custody by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and served with a deportation order. He efficiently challenged his elimination on the Board of Immigration Appeals in 2019, based on his former immigration legal professional, Mfon Anthony Ikon.
Ikon stated the U.S. Division of Homeland Safety then deserted its makes an attempt to deport Kaleel.
Representatives for ICE and DHS didn’t reply to a request for remark.
In 2022, Kaleel satisfied a choose to overturn his plea to the preliminary intercourse crimes cost on the grounds that he didn’t absolutely perceive the affect it may need on his immigration standing, information present.
Dmitry Gorin, a former L.A. County prosecutor who has tried circumstances within the space for the final three a long time, stated it’s uncommon — however not unprecedented — for defendants to fade on the eve of a verdict.
“It’s an uncommon state of affairs,” he stated. “However folks’s conduct will be very unpredictable after they’re going through large time in jail.”
