A karate teacher who pleaded guilty to having sex with a minor student will spend four years and four months in prison.
Josh Thomas Churchill, 32 — the former operator and lead instructor at United Studios Self-Defense Karate Studio — was handed down his sentence Friday.
He admitted last month to ten charges, including lewd acts on a child and unlawful intercourse with a minor, pleading down from 53 criminal counts with which he was originally charged.
In June, San Diego County Sheriff’s deputies crashed through the front door of Churchill’s Poway karate studio to serve search warrants as the suspect was arrested near his San Diego home.
Investigators say for more than three years, he committed illegal acts against a minor at the studio and other locations.
According to his Facebook page "Sensei-Josh Churchill," Churchill was previously an instructor at Z-Ultimate Self Defense Studios in Poway, but as of April, he was no longer working there.
NBC 7 also found a civil court complaint filed on June 2 by Churchill. In the court papers, he asked for a protective order against an ex-employee of Z-Ultimate and her father, alleging that they attacked him in May after she was fired.
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The ex-employee responded with a restraining order application of her own.
