Former local teacher pleads guilty to sex charges, sentenced 30 years to life

A former Bermuda Dunes Learning Center teacher who is accused of sex crimes involving children pleaded guilty today to felony charges and was immediately sentenced to 30 years to life in prison.

Palm Desert resident Devin Daniel Lujan, 32, pleaded guilty Thursday at the Larson Justice Center in Indio to two felony counts of engaging in oral copulation on a child under 10 as well as one felony count each of lewd acts on a child under 14 and willful child cruelty, according to court records.  

His co-defendant, James McCall Anderson, 36, is charged with two felony counts of knowingly distributing harmful matter and two misdemeanor counts of immoral acts before a child, according to court records. His next court appearance was set for March 26.

Both defendants volunteered at George Washington Charter School in Palm Desert, according to Desert Sands Unified School District spokeswoman Mary Perry.

The pair were arrested in July 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.

According to a declaration in support of Lujan's arrest filed by Riverside County Sheriff's Department Investigator Thomas Hendry, Anderson was out on a date from around 5:30 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. on June 27, 2019, and had asked his roommate Lujan to babysit.

When Anderson returned, the victim was watching television in the living room, but an hour later, went into the defendant's bedroom to tell him in private that Lujan took her into his bedroom and licked her private area while he was gone, Hendry wrote. She added that she asked Lujan to stop because it started to hurt, and the defendant did, telling her that he would buy her a bicycle if she didn't tell anyone about what happened.   

During the victim's forensic interview, she told the interviewer that Lujan had taken her into his bedroom, placed her on a black couch, spread her private area with his finger and stared at it, according to the court document. She then told him that it hurt and he stopped, but then he licked her until she again told him to stop

A second victim, who was 6 years old at the time, was interviewed June 3, 2019 and said that she was cuddling with Lujan at his residence when he placed one of his hands on her butt, according to Hendry. When asked what she thought when he did that, she made a shocked facial expression.

Anderson faces two felony counts of sending pornographic material to minors and two misdemeanor counts of committing immoral acts before a minor. The criminal complaint alleges the defendant was "habitually drunk" in the presence of at least one child in his care or custody.

Lujan is being held at the John J. Benoit Detention Center in Indio without bail. Anderson was free on a $30,000 bail bond.