Ex-deputy charged with sexually assaulting teen in Lancaster

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 said.

Benny Vincente Caluya Jr., 68, is charged with one felony count each of lewd act on a child age 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 are accused of picking up the teenager as she walked alone in Lancaster in late August and provided her with methamphetamine, according to the District Attorney’s Office.

Caluya is accused of sexually assaulting the girl at his Lancaster home.

“Benny Caluya separated from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department in 2001,” according to a statement released last month by the department.

Caluya and Abihai are due back in a Lancaster courtroom on Nov. 12, when a date is scheduled to be set for a hearing to determine if there is sufficient evidence to allow the case against them to proceed to trial.

“Today, we stand firmly in solidarity with this courageous teenage survivor, a young girl whose vulnerability was exploited,” District Attorney George Gascón said in a statement. “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.”