Modesto karate instructor ordered to trial in sexual abuse of students

A judge ruled Tuesday afternoon that there is sufficient cause to believe a Modesto karate instructor guilty of sexually abusing several of his juvenile students and hold him to answer to the charges.

Without elaborating, Stanislaus County Superior Court Judge Thomas Zeff said special allegations and enhancements in the case against Carlos Silva Loya, 51, also are supported. Arraignment for Loya was scheduled for March 29.

At Tuesday afternoon’s preliminary examination, defense attorney Andrea Fatone called as witnesses a former student, the mother of a former student and Loya’s son, two daughters and estranged wife, among others.

The former student testified that, to his knowledge, Loya’s students never were alone with the instructor when using a restroom or changing clothes.

He and family members said they never witnessed or overheard sexual or inappropriate conduct or talk between Loya and the youths.

Boys involved in the case have been identified in court as John Does 1 through 11. John Doe 1 told a Modesto police detective that Loya assaulted him about 50 times over the course of a year. He told the investigator he had been a student at Loya’s school about a year when the abuse began at age 13.

In Tuesday’s hearing, Loya’s wife, Obdulia Serrano, said through a translator that John Doe 1 stayed at the family’s home regularly because “we were watching over him.”

She said the youth sometimes would sleep the night in her husband’s room, alone with him, while she slept in another room with her daughters.

The couple’s 19-year-old son, Jesse, also testified that his father and John Doe 1 sometimes slept alone together in the master bedroom.

But he, Serrano and Loya’s daughters said they never heard or saw anything sexual between the man and boy, and would have heard something because the walls in their home are thin.

In closing, Fatone said investigators in the case didn’t try to seek the truth. No reasonable measures were taken to talk with people to corroborate the youths’ allegations, she said, and her client’s alleged admissions don’t come anywhere close to the allegations against him.

Prosecutor Erin Peck made no closing argument.

Loya faces 28 counts. Three previously had been dismissed, and a count alleging force was dropped Tuesday, though the prosecution indicated it would modify and resubmit it.

This story was originally published March 14, 2017 at 4:53 PM with the headline "Modesto karate instructor ordered to trial in sexual abuse of students."