A Hollywood piano teacher convicted of sexually abusing a 15-year-old California client allegedly fled the country rather than face justice earlier this month, according to a new report.

The 69-year-old maestro John Kaleel allegedly skipped town on Oct. 8, shortly after jurors returned their verdict, according to the Los Angeles Times.

He may have left earlier, with his lawyer telling the paper she hasn’t heard from him since the day before.

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A pianist presses a key with their middle finger in this stock image. Hollywood maestro John Kaleel, an Australian national convicted of child sex abuse, allegedly fled the country rather than face justice at the end of his trial in Los Angeles. (iStock)

Fox News Digital has reached out to Kaleel’s defense attorney, Kate Hardie, for comment.

The male victim in the case told police that Kaleel asked to measure his genitalia when he was 15, Los Angeles prosecutors told the court, according to the paper. Then he said that Kaleel asked him to get naked on a FaceTime call two years later, telling him, that’s “what friends do.”

A couple runs through an airport to catch their flight in this stock image. Hollywood piano teacher John Kaleel is accused of jetting out of the country after his conviction on child sex abuse charges. (iStock)

Prosecutors accused him of using marijuana with the teen and engaging in oral sex with him. He faced up to 10 years in prison when he allegedly fled the country.

The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department did not immediately respond to a request to comment before business hours Friday.

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Signage at Los Angeles International Airport indicating flight arrivals and departures along Sepulveda Boulevard, pictured on January 6, 2025. (iStock)

Kaleel’s website indicated that his client list includes the children whose parents worked on hit TV series, including “Mad Men,” “Samurai Jack” and “Orange is the New Black,” according to the report. Their testimonials on his website were not visible Friday.

Kaleel, who is originally from Australia, pleaded guilty to the charges but later retracted his plea and appealed after the conviction led to deportation proceedings, according to news.com.au, a major Australian news site.

An Instagram profile in Kaleel’s name states that he studied classical piano at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music in his home country and had been accepted to Juilliard, the elite performing arts school in New York City.

The case went to trial and led to his conviction, but he was free without bail during the latest legal proceeding.

The post Hollywood piano teacher allegedly flees country after sexual abuse conviction involving teen appeared first on My Blog.

Gaila Bennett of Midland, about 120 miles northwest of Detroit, was arraigned Monday on 47 counts of criminal sexual misconduct after a family alleged their children were abused while in her care between 2013 and 2020, Michigan State Police said.

The charges include 24 counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct with a child younger than 13, 12 counts of second-degree criminal sexual conduct with a child younger than 13 and 11 counts of assault with intent to commit sexual penetration, the Midland Daily News reported.

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Gaila Bennett, 63, of Midland, Mich., was arraigned Monday on 47 counts of criminal sexual misconduct. (Midland County Sheriff’s Department)

Michigan State Police said the alleged abuse took place at Bennett’s home on Prairie Road in Midland County. The investigation began earlier this month after a Bay County family contacted authorities.

One victim told investigators she was sexually assaulted nearly every day since kindergarten while Bennett was babysitting. Investigators also allege Bennett took photos of the abuse, according to the Midland Daily News.

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Prarie Road in Midland County, Mich., where police said the alleged abuse took place at Bennett’s home. (Google Maps)

Bennett was arrested Oct. 17, and police seized several electronic devices from her home to be examined for evidence.

“This incident remains under investigation, and more charges may be sought,” Michigan State Police said.

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Bennett was arrested Oct. 17, and police seized several electronic devices from her home that are being examined for evidence. (Getty Images)

Bennett is being held on $5 million bond and is scheduled to appear in court again Nov. 4, CBS News reported.

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Michigan State Police and the Midland County Sheriff’s Department did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.

Sophia Compton is a Writer at Fox News Digital. Sophia was previously a business reporter covering finance, energy and tourism and has experience as a TV news producer. She graduated with a journalism degree in 2021 from the University of Hawaii at Manoa.

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Now 18, Jesse Butler recently entered a no contest plea to 11 felony charges, including attempted first-degree rape, strangulation and violating a protective order. Because authorities said the crimes happened before he turned 18, the court adjusted his legal status under Oklahoma’s youthful offender laws.

Court filings show Butler was originally charged as an adult in March. He’s now being prosecuted as a youthful offender for rape, sexual battery and domestic assault and battery by strangulation.

His next hearing is scheduled for Dec. 8 in Payne County District Court.

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Parents in Payne County express anger after a high school student facing multiple serious charges had his status changed to “youthful offender” in court. (Google Maps)

The Stillwater Police Department said officers were first notified Sept. 12, 2024, of incidents that reportedly took place earlier that year.

“A full investigation was initiated the following day that resulted in SPD submitting the case to the Payne County District Attorney’s Office, where it was reviewed and charges were filed,” the department said in a statement.

At the time, Butler was a student in Stillwater Public Schools. Court records obtained by KOCO include several emotional victim impact statements describing lasting fear and trauma.

“You didn’t just strangle me with your hands — you strangled my voice, my joy, my ability to feel safe in my own body,” one victim wrote.

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Jesse Butler in a baseball uniform before the criminal allegations came to light. (Risin Baseball)

She said Butler also threatened to kill her if she spoke out.

A mother of one of the victims told KOCO the justice system “failed” her daughter.

“As a mom, I never thought I’d have to watch my daughter fight this kind of battle, one where she had to prove she was the victim, over and over again, while the system made excuse after excuse for the person who hurt her.”

Jesse Butler’s father, Mack Butler, is the former director of football operations at Oklahoma State University, located in Stillwater.

A police affidavit reviewed by Fox News details brutal acts, including a girlfriend who said she was repeatedly raped and strangled if she refused, and a doctor warned she would have died in one instance if the strangulation lasted seconds longer.

WATCH: Violent teen predator avoids prison time on sexual assault charges

Video

Court documents show Butler remains bound by a sentence issued Aug. 25, 2025, contingent on full compliance with a state-supervised rehabilitation plan.

While Butler was sentenced to a total of 78 years, the sentence is suspended under Oklahoma’s youthful offender program, meaning Butler will not serve prison time unless he violates the plan’s conditions.

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The Payne County Court Office in Stillwater, Okla. (Google Maps)

He remains under Office of Juvenile Affairs supervision until his 19th birthday, subject to counseling, therapy, more than 100 hours of community service, a curfew, no social media, daily check-ins and weekly counseling, according to documents obtained by Fox News.

The Payne County District Attorney’s Office said it followed state law in handling the case, noting that Butler was 17 at the time of the offenses and therefore fell under Oklahoma’s youthful offender statute.

The office said the designation allows the court to maintain supervision until the defendant’s 19th birthday and gives him a chance for rehabilitation while still holding him accountable.

Jesse Butler sitting down on a bench with his sister and mother standing nearby.  (Amber ‘mckinzie’ Selvey)

A spokesperson added that the law does not erase the crimes or minimize their impact but provides “a legal path for accountability and rehabilitation under state law.”

If Butler fulfills the terms of the program and avoids further legal trouble, he can remain out of prison, though any violation could result in the full sentence being enforced.

State Rep. J.J. Humphrey, R-Lane, called the outcome “unacceptable” and said he plans to file a petition for a grand jury investigation into how Payne County prosecutors handled the case.

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State Rep. J.J. Humphrey is questioning the lenient sentence for a Stillwater teen convicted of rape and calling for an investigation. (State of Oklahoma House of Representatives)

“If that don’t set you on fire, your wood’s wet,” Humphrey told Fox News Digital. “You know what I mean? You’ve got a bad deal. That sets me on fire.”

He accused local officials of showing “favoritism” and contrasted Butler’s case with others in which defendants faced harsher penalties.

“Does it absolutely smack of political favor that you’re going to erase rapes and sexual crimes so you can give this guy a slap on the wrist?” Humphrey said. “Oklahoma, better pay attention. Wake up.”

Neither the presiding judge nor the District Attorney’s Office has issued additional comment beyond the written statement. Fox News Digital reached out to Butler’s legal team for comment.

Stepheny Price covers crime, including missing persons, homicides and migrant crime. Send story tips to stepheny.price@fox.com.

Stepheny Price is a Writer at Fox News with a focus on West Coast and Midwest news, missing persons, national and international crime stories, homicide cases, and border security.

The post Families outraged after high school student in violent sex assault cases avoids prison as youthful offender appeared first on My Blog.

In “Nobody’s Girl: A Memoir of Surviving Abuse and Fighting for Justice,” Giuffre — who died by suicide earlier this year — recalled the events that led to her being sex trafficked as a minor by the convicted sex offender and his accomplice and wrote of the fear she endured for years.

Across nearly 400 pages, Giuffre recounted how what began as a promise of opportunity turned into captivity. She wrote that later she would come to realize that “step by practiced step,” Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell “broke down” her defenses.

“Every time I felt a twinge of discomfort, one glance at Maxwell told me I was overreacting,” she wrote.

“Nobody’s Girl: A Memoir of Surviving Abuse and Fighting for Justice,” a memoir by one of Jeffrey Epstein’s main accusers, was released Tuesday. (NIKLAS HALLE’N/AFP via Getty Images)

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Following her introduction into Epstein’s world, Giuffre said that she was a “daily presence” at El Brillo Way, the financier’s Palm Beach mansion. She shared that Epstein “liked to watch women together.”

“Little by little, I was welcomed into the sorority of Epstein’s girls,” she wrote.

Giuffre, who was working at Mar-a-Lago when she was recruited, said that Epstein encouraged her to quit her job to work full-time for him, but warned that she would be “at his beck and call, day and night. No exceptions.”

“When he said, ‘Jump!’ my response would have to be, “How high?”

Giuffre said that through becoming financially indebted to Epstein, she became trapped in servitude. She described that she was initially hesitant to agree to work full-time for Epstein, but received a threat about her younger brother, Sky Roberts Jr.

“We know where your brother goes to school,” Epstein allegedly told her. “You must never tell a soul what goes on in this house.”

David Boies, representing several of Jeffrey Epstein’s alleged victims, center, arrives with Annie Farmer and Virginia Giuffre, at federal court in New York on Tuesday, Aug. 27, 2019.  (Mark Kauzlarich/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Giuffre revealed that as her relationship with Epstein and Maxwell grew, she said that she had “unlocked” Epstein into confiding in her. In her memoir she wrote that he showed her a hidden doorway next to “some paintings of naked people stretching.”

She said that she saw the convicted sex offender’s “trophy closet,” a closet with floor-to-ceiling photos of young girls.

“All of the girls were naked, many of them quite obviously underage, and the images were raunchy, not demure,” Giuffre recalled in her memoir. “A stack of shoe-boxes in the corner held the overflow. He had so many photos that he’d run out of display space.”

She said that when Epstein allegedly showed her his closet, she said he didn’t speak, but the smug look on his face said, “Look at my conquests. Look at how powerful I am.”

A person reads a copy of “Nobody’s Girl” by Virginia Roberts Giuffre, which was published on Tuesday. Prince Andrew relinquished his dukedom and other honors on Friday, after excerpts from the posthumous autobiography of Giuffre were released.  (James Manning/PA Images via Getty Images)

PRINCE ANDREW ACCUSER VIRGINIA GIUFFRE FEARED SHE WOULD ‘DIE A SEX SLAVE’ IN JEFFREY EPSTEIN TRAFFICKING RING

Giuffre delved into the elite exploitation of Epstein’s world, sharing that she would be at Epstein’s various residences all day.

“Some days, the call would come in the morning. I’d show up, perform whatever sex acts Epstein wanted, then hang out beside his vast swimming pool while he got some work done. After a few hours, I’d usually be summoned to have sex with him again,” she wrote.

“If Maxwell was there, I was often told to attend to her sexually as well. She kept a bin of vibrators and sex toys handy for these sessions. But she never demanded sex from me one-on-one — only when we were with Epstein. Sometimes there were other girls there, too, and I’d end up staying at El Brillo Way all day.”

Virginia Roberts holds a photo of herself at age 16, when she says Palm Beach multimillionaire Jeffrey Epstein began abusing her sexually. (Emily Michot/Miami Herald/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)

She said that Maxwell, who was convicted in 2021 for helping lure teenage girls to be sexually abused by Epstein, was “proud” of her friendships with famous people.

Giuffre wrote that Maxwell “loved to talk about how easily she could get former president Bill Clinton on the phone,” though Clinton has denied any wrongdoing or knowledge of Epstein’s crimes.

Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell in an undated photograph. (Justice Department)

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Epstein was found dead in his New York jail cell weeks after his 2019 arrest. The American financier was awaiting trial on U.S. federal sex-trafficking charges involving dozens of teenage girls and young women, some as young as 14. Investigators ruled his death a suicide.

Maxwell was convicted in 2021 for helping lure teenage girls to be sexually abused by him. She is serving a 20-year prison sentence.

Sarah Rumpf-Whitten is a U.S. Writer at Fox News Digital. 

You can follow her on Twitter and LinkedIn.

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