CITY NEWS SERVICE
A man who runs a Los Angeles acting/modeling school is due in court this week on charges of sexually abusing a 16-year-old aspiring model, the City Attorney’s Office announced June 1.
Yoshitomo Kaneda, 45, is charged with misdemeanor counts of child molestation, sexual battery, sexual penetration by a foreign object, false imprisonment and dissuading a witness. A pretrial hearing was scheduled for June 7.
“No business, including the entertainment business, can tolerate persons who prey upon vulnerable and trusting clients,” City Attorney Carmen A. Trutanich said. “Talent agents, actors and others who violate that trust and engage in such egregious acts will be prosecuted to the utmost.”
Kaneda allegedly sexually abused the teen on Feb. 22 after taking her to his apartment, purportedly to teach her Japanese, Deputy City Attorney Lara D. Schwartz said.
The girl, who was attending Kaneda’s acting/modeling school, was allegedly given a massage and sexually molested. Afterward, Kaneda left several incriminating voice messages with both the mother and manager of the victim, Schwartz alleged.
If convicted of all charges, Kaneda faces up to two years in jail.
First of all, this guy is Korean. Child abuse? Ridiculous. She’s sixteen! Many “children” that age are married and having kids throughout the world. I’m sure she realized that he didn’t have the pull she thought he had and retaliated after giving consent, which she is certainly capable of. Dumb, dumb, dumb. Waste of our tax dollars. And another actor blacklisted. Dumb.
Given the noncareers of Japanese actors and “models” in the States, why would anyone pay a Japanese to teach them to succeed in the field?