Two Palm Desert men who previously volunteered at Desert Sands Unified School District campuses and are accused of sex crimes involving children must each stand trial on multiple felony charges, prosecutors said Tuesday.
Devin Daniel Lujan, 28, and James McCall Anderson, 32, were arrested in the summer of 2019 in the 74000 block of Scholar Lane in Palm Desert after deputies were tipped off to an allegation of child sexual abuse, according to the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department.
The pair appeared for a preliminary hearing Monday, where a judge ruled prosecutors had sufficient evidence to hold the defendants on some — but not all — of the charges previously filed by the Riverside County District Attorney’s Office stemming from alleged crimes the criminal complaint says occurred in 2017.
Lujan was held to answer on one count of committing lewd acts with a minor, two felony counts of oral copulation or sexual penetration with a child under 10 years old and one count of willful child cruelty, along with two sentence-enhancing allegations of committing a sex offense involving multiple victims.
The judge dismissed another count of committing lewd acts with a minor, and a misdemeanor child abuse count.
Lujan’s alleged victims “were known to the defendant,” John Hall, the public information officer for the Riverside County District Attorney’s Office, said previously.
Anderson now faces two felony counts of sending pornographic material to minors, and two misdemeanor counts of committing immoral acts before a minor — which the criminal complaint describes as the defendant being “habitually drunk” in the presence of at least one child in his care or custody.
A judge dismissed two child pornography-related felony charges against Anderson and one misdemeanor count of endangering or abusing a child.
Both defendants volunteered at George Washington Charter School in Palm Desert, Desert Sands Unified School District spokeswoman Mary Perry previously told The Desert Sun, and Lujan was also a teacher at the Bermuda Dunes Learning Center.
Anderson remains free on $30,000 bail, while Lujan is being held at the Indio jail in lieu of $5 million bail.