VAN NUYS — Two more boys have come forward with claims that they were molested by an elementary school teacher who has already been formally charged with abusing four pupils and is the target of an ongoing police investigation, Los Angeles police said Thursday.
The newest alleged victims, ages 12 and 14, both attended Hazeltine Avenue School, where accused molester Jeffrey Herbert Raker taught until he was placed on unpaid leave last week. So far, Raker has been charged with six counts of sexually assaulting four of the seven boys whom police have identified as victims.
Raker, who pleaded not guilty to the charges this week, is accused of molesting the students on campus, at his Studio City home and during weekend trips. The sexual assaults began a few months after he started working at Hazeltine in February, 1992, police said, and the alleged victims have all either been students in Raker's classes or were members of sports teams he coached after school.
Police said they plan to interview youths who may have had contact with Raker at the church he attended, St. David Episcopal Church in North Hollywood.
"We will continue to seek out additional victims until we're satisfied we've located them all," LAPD Officer Rosibel Ferrufino said. "We're talking to everyone Raker has come in contact with from 1992 on. . . . Now we have to start looking at the church."
The Rev. Jose Poch, pastor at St. David, could not be reached for comment Thursday, but he has said previously that Raker was not involved in any youth-group activities since he began attending services there a couple of years ago.
Police began investigating Raker, 47, last week after a student told a playground supervisor that Raker had molested him. Prior to starting work at Hazeltine, Raker spent roughly 15 years living in Guatemala, where he worked as a teacher and founded an orphanage, according to authorities.
It was during that time that Raker reportedly spent more than a year in a Guatemalan jail on allegations of child abuse and was released through the intervention of friends from the United States, said James Solheim, public affairs director of the New York-based Episcopal Church.
Raker ran a small orphanage in the house where he lived in a village north of Guatemala City, according to Solheim, who was able to glean a few details about Raker's stint there Thursday by speaking with Guatemalan Bishop Armando Guerra.
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