When jurors returned to a West L.A. courtroom to deliver their verdict in a child sex abuse case earlier this month, one key person was missing: the defendant.
John Kaleel — a veteran piano teacher who has given lessons to the families of several Hollywood power players — faced allegations that he sexually abused one of his students in 2013.
Kaleel, 69, pleaded no contest in 2016 to committing a lewd act with a teenage student, but later fought to have the plea overturned after realizing the felony conviction would be grounds for deportation to his native Australia. L.A. County prosecutors then retried him and, while the case was pending, he was released on his own recognizance.
On Oct. 8 — the same day jurors in the Airport Courthouse found him guilty of five counts of sexual abuse — Kaleel slipped out of the country, according to a statement from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department and court records.
The Sheriff’s Department did not say where they believed Kaleel had fled to. Court records show prosecutors filed an application to seek an “Extradition/Fugitive Hardcopy Warrant,” but it contained no details about how he absconded and a spokesperson for the district attorney’s office declined to answer questions.
Kaleel’s attorney, Kate Hardie, said she last saw her client when she drove him home from court on Oct. 7, the day before the verdict was handed down, and has had no contact with him since. Kaleel has been a lawful permanent resident of the U.S. since the 1980s, according to Hardie. Attempts by The Times to contact Kaleel were unsuccessful.
A spokeswoman for the district attorney’s office declined to discuss what steps it would take to get Kaleel back in custody in Los Angeles. Hardie said her client faces at least a decade in state prison at sentencing.
Hardie accused the district attorney’s office of carrying out a “vindictive prosecution” against Kaleel, who had already served a year in jail and spent time in a federal immigration detention center after his original plea deal.
Kaleel taught private lessons for more than a quarter-century in L.A., and his clients included “Hollywood industry professionals and students who have pursued successful music careers,” according to his website. The web page boasted testimonials from the creators of critically acclaimed television series, including “Mad Men” and “Orange Is the New Black,” who praised his work with their children.
Emmy-award winning animation director Genndy Tartakovsky, who created several famous cartoons, including “Dexter’s Laboratory” and “Samurai Jack,” also referred to Kaleel as a “gift,” according to the website.
“I have never seen my three children become more inspired or enthusiastic for anything as much as they did for your piano classes,” Tartakovsky said, according to an earlier version of Kaleel’s business website.
The testimonials disappeared from the website on Monday, after The Times began contacting representatives for those quoted.
Spokespersons for Jenji Kohan, who created “Orange Is the New Black,” and Matthew Weiner, the writer behind “Mad Men,” both denied giving Kaleel any endorsements or the permission to post any comment on his website. A representative for Tartakovsky declined to comment. Court records show Tartakovsky’s wife and one of his children, a former student of Kaleel’s, testified on the teacher’s behalf at trial.
“Mr. Kaleel has always maintained his innocence and that he took his initial plea bargain on the advice of counsel to avoid a harsher sentence should he lose at trial,” Hardie said. “He later learned of the immigration consequences when he was placed in an immigration custody facility for 8 [or] 9 months and faced removal proceedings.”
Hardie argued her client was the victim of a “trial tax,” which references prosecutors often seeking to punish defendants more severely when they don’t take a plea. Hardie also said Sheriff’s Department detectives interviewed many of Kaleel’s students “and found no other student who complained of Kaleel being inappropriate.”
The alleged victim in the case first contacted the Sheriff’s Department in 2015. The boy said he was 15 when Kaleel acted inappropriately by asking “to take measurements of [the victim’s] body parts, including his penis,” according to court records.
Two years later, Kaleel convinced the boy that they should masturbate together while on a FaceTime call because that’s “what friends do,” records show. In September 2013, prosecutors alleged, Kaleel invited the boy over and they smoked marijuana together before having oral sex.
A friend of the victim also testified at trial that Kaleel attempted to engage in sexual conduct with him, but that count was not charged, according to court records. Hardie said her client had no physical 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 successfully challenged his removal at the Board of Immigration Appeals in 2019, according to his former immigration attorney, Mfon Anthony Ikon.
Ikon said the U.S. Department of Homeland Security then abandoned its attempts to deport Kaleel.
Representatives for ICE and DHS did not respond to a request for comment.
In 2022, Kaleel convinced a judge to overturn his plea to the initial sex crimes charge on the grounds that he didn’t fully understand the impact it might have on his immigration status, records show.
Dmitry Gorin, a former L.A. County prosecutor who has tried cases in the area for the last three decades, said it’s rare — but not unprecedented — for defendants to vanish on the eve of a verdict.
“It’s an unusual situation,” he said. “But people’s conduct can be very unpredictable when they’re facing tremendous time in prison.”
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