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MONDAY, FEBRUARYY 26- MARCH 03, 2024
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VOL. 8,
NO. 160
Former teacher pleads guilty to sex charges, gets 30 years to life
Bestseller-based play addressing Alzheimer’s to open in Palm Springs
By City News Service
By Staff
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play on the impact of Alzheimer’s disease on families is set to open next month in Palm Springs. Revolution Stage Company is hosting the California premiere of “The Woman in the Mirror” — “a dark comedy about navigating Alzheimer’s with love, laughter, and wine (that) takes audiences on an inspirational journey filled with laughter, wit, and the resilience required when facing extraordinary and unexpected circumstances,” according to theater organizers. Adapted from Dayna Steele’s best-selling book “Surviving Alzheimer’s with Friends, Facebook, and a Really Big Glass of Wine,” the one-woman play is about the author’s reaction to her mom’s Alzheimer’s diagnosis. The show chronicles Steele’s experiences caring for her mother and is a heartwarming story filled with humor and inspiration, theater organizers said in a statement. “Steele began posting online, detailing the family’s alarming, sometimes humorous struggles, turning it into a therapeutic community of support and information encompassing thousands of followers,” according to theater organizers. Steele’s refreshing honesty, laced with biting humor, is a beacon of strength and resiliency. Her play is not only a theatrical triumph but also a living on-stage caregiver’s See Bestseller-based play Page 27
James McCall Anderson. | Photo courtesy of the Riverside
Devin Daniel Lujan. | Photo courtesy of the Riverside County
County Sheriff’s Department
Sheriff’s Department
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former Bermuda Dunes Learning Center teacher who is accused of sex crimes involving children pleaded guilty Thursday 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.
Corona nonprofits’ requests for event cosponsorship due Thursday By Staff
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orona nonprofits have until Thursday to submit requests for grants to help pay for events in the next fiscal year that starts in July. City officials are drafting the budget for co-sponsored events and have invited qualified nonprofit organizations to apply. Applications are accepted in two phases: Events set for July 1-Dec. 31, applications are currently available and due this Thursday, Feb. 29. Events scheduled for Jan. 1-June 30, 2025, applications will be available starting July 1. The city uses the following criteria to choose co-sponsorship grant recipients: “1. Community groups, non-profit 501(c)(3) tax exempt organizations or other government agencies. Non-profit status will be verified via the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). Corona-Norco Unified School District events may be considered for City co-sponsorship.” Applicants must provide proof of their organization’s See Corona nonprofits Page 28