RivCo karate teacher charged with sexually abusing three girls

MURRIETA, Calif. (KESQ) - A 62-year-old martial arts instructor accused of sexually assaulting three girls during lessons at his Temecula home was charged today with nearly a dozen offenses.

Dzung Xuan Mai was arrested Friday following a Riverside County Sheriff's Department investigation.

Mai is charged with nine counts of lewd acts on a child under 14 years old and multiple sentence-enhancing allegations of targeting more than one victim in sex crimes.

The defendant, who is being held in lieu of $1 million bail at the Byrd Detention Center, was slated to make his initial court appearance Tuesday afternoon at the Southwest Justice Center in Murrieta.  

According to prosecutors, one of the girls was the initial target of Mai's alleged abuse, beginning in August 2020 and continuing to August 2024. The circumstances behind the encounters were not specified, only referenced generally as instances in which the karate teacher allegedly put his hands on "certain parts'' of the girl's body to gratify his "lust, passions and sexual desires."  

The criminal complaint indicated that the two other girls were allegedly abused between May 2024 and June of this year.   

According to sheriff's Sgt. Mike Kelleher, deputies were informed Wednesday of an alleged assault on one of the girls, who had been taking a lesson at Mai's martial arts studio, located in his residence in the 31000 block of Iris Way, near Poppy Ridge Drive.  

"Investigators learned that Mai had been teaching there for the past several years, instructing students between 5 and 19 years old,'' Kelleher said.

After gathering details on the alleged assault, a search warrant was procured and served at the defendant's property, where he was taken into custody without incident Friday morning.  

Further investigation by the sheriff's Special Victims Unit led to the identification of the other two victims.

If convicted of one or more of the charges, the defendant could face 25 years to life in state prison.

He has no documented prior felony convictions in Riverside County.