California tutor gets 235 years for molesting 2 students at after-school program

A tutor who sexually assaulted two boys for more than a half-decade while working with them in an Orange County after-school program was sentenced on Friday, July 18, to 235 years to life behind bars.

The sentence of Zeta “Jimmy” Dhanapanth, 53, in a Santa Ana courtroom — officially 235 years, eight months to life — came a little more than two months after a jury convicted him of a dozen felony counts of lewd acts with a minor under 14 and a single count of possession of child pornography.

Dhanapanth would have to serve the 235 years, eight months in custody before even becoming eligible for parole.

Dhanapanth, who served as his own attorney, testified to being interested in children who have sex with other children and to possessing child pornography for “educational purposes.” But he denied ever touching the boys, prosecutors wrote in a sentencing brief.

Dhanapanth met the two boys — ages 8 and 9 when the abuse began — while tutoring them in math and English at the Anaheim Indepencia Center in an unincorporated area near Anaheim. He worked at the center, which is focused on the Spanish-speaking community, from 2012 to 2016.

According to testimony, Dhanapanth began by sitting close to the boys and touching their legs before progressing to placing his hands in their shorts and to eventually more explicit sexual acts.

He also showed pornographic material to the boys and gave at least one gifts in exchange for sexual acts.

After a teacher walked in on Dhanapanth and one of the boys in a “compromising situation,” the authorities were told. Investigators, during a search of Dhanapanth’s home, found child-pornography videos on his electronic devices.

Along with his work at the center, Dhanapanth also volunteered for School on Wheels, which provides tutors for children living in shelters, group foster homes or on the streets, and tutored at the homes of needy students.