Teacher Faces Multiple Sexual Offense Charges

An elementary schoolteacher, who is already facing charges of sexually assaulting a colleague, has been charged with attacking two other women, including a 17-year-old he met while on duty as a Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy, authorities said Monday.

Prosecutors filed four additional felony charges Friday against Edward Keith Culhane, 35, who worked as a sheriff’s deputy from January, 1982, to August, 1991.

Culhane is charged with raping the teen-ager in June, 1990, after luring her to a Comfort Inn in Lakewood on the pretense of helping her with a college English paper, according to Deputy Dist. Atty. Robert B. Foltz Jr.

Culhane left the Sheriff’s Department 14 months after this alleged assault.

A single count of sexual battery, also filed last week, alleges that Culhane improperly touched a 22-year-old baby-sitter in a lewd manner. “He got sexually out of line with her,” Foltz said.

In all, Culhane now faces seven felony counts, including three charges related to an alleged assault on a teacher with whom he worked at Santa Clarita Elementary School.

A preliminary hearing on the three charges is scheduled for Thursday.

Charges against Culhane were first filed two months ago after a teacher alleged that he attacked her Nov. 5 in a classroom after children had been dismissed for the day.

The 44-year-old teacher has since filed a $1-million claim against the Saugus Union School District, alleging that she was sexually assaulted and then district officials directed the woman not to report the alleged assault to police.

District officials have said that Culhane was put on paid leave Jan. 14, pending the results of the criminal investigation.

Culhane is free after previously posting $50,000 bail.