TEMECULA, CA — A preliminary hearing previously scheduled for a 62-year-old martial arts instructor accused of sexually assaulting three girls during lessons at his Temecula home was rescinded Tuesday without explanation.
Dzung Xuan Mai was arrested last month 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.
During a hearing last week before Superior Court Judge John Molloy, the defendant's attorney indicated his client was prepared to move ahead with the preliminary hearing, which is necessary to determine whether there's sufficient evidence to warrant a trial. However, the matter was vacated by Molloy on Tuesday, when he instead set a felony settlement conference for Sept. 23 at the Southwest Justice Center.
There were no immediate details regarding why proceedings changed, though it may indicate pretrial negotiations are underway.
The defendant remains held on $1 million bail at the nearby Byrd Detention Center.
Court documents identified the alleged victims by their initials -- "J.H.," "J.W." and "R.M."
According to prosecutors, R.M. was the initial alleged target of Mai's 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."
J.H. and J.W. were possibly molested during lessons together with the defendant, court papers alleged. The criminal complaint indicated they were both allegedly abused between May 2024 and June of this year, under conditions analogous to those affecting R.M.
According to sheriff's Sgt. Mike Kelleher, deputies were informed on June 24 of an alleged assault on J.H., who had been taking a lesson that day 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 two days later.
Further investigation by the sheriff's Special Victims Unit led to the identification of the other two alleged 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.
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