An international music program founder accused of lewd conduct with children recorded himself ejaculating into flutes he distributed in 2017 to five girls attending elementary schools in Costa Mesa and Castaic, according to a grand jury transcript obtained by the Southern California News Group.

“You have been warned that it is a salacious and disturbing matter,” Deputy Attorney General Amanda Casillas told Orange County grand jurors in March during her opening statement. “There are going to be graphic images including sexual content where the victims are children, elementary school little girls, and that it’s very disturbing.”

Casillas’ opening statement offers the first glimpse into the state’s case against John Edward Zeretzke, the 60-year-old Ventura man who founded Flutes Across the World.

The grand jury heard testimony from the victims and a litany of other witnesses, including digital forensic examiners, law enforcement officers, a biological forensic analyst, medical professionals, teachers and school officials.

Orange County Superior Court Judge Kimberly Menniger this week ordered the release of a redacted copy of Casillas’ statement after the Southern California News Group argued in court for public access to the grand jury transcript.

Menniger also ordered the Attorney General’s Office to provide the media organization with the names of the schools the victims attended — Sonora Elementary in Costa Mesa and Castaic Elementary. The judge then sealed the transcript that totals more than 500 pages.

Prosecutors and the Orange County Public Defender’s Office objected to the release of the school names, saying it could indirectly identify the victims and impede the criminal case. The Southern California News Group does not identify sex crime victims.

School district: ‘Gross violation’

Steve Doyle, superintendent of the Castaic Union School District, said the allegations against Zeretzke are disturbing. Zeretzke had workshops for fourth-graders at Castaic Elementary during the 2015-16 and 2016-17 school years.

“Two years ago, law enforcement informed us of this shocking situation, and we were equally relieved when notified the suspected violator was arrested,” Doyle said Friday, June 28. “Our district took immediate steps to cooperate with law enforcement’s investigation and we worked in earnest to promptly notify our parents. It’s impossible to deny the gross violation this represents to the children and families who were directly involved.”

The Newport-Mesa Unified School District also took immediate action when it learned of the allegations against Zeretzke.

“When our district was first made aware of this in October 2017, we immediately cooperated with law enforcement,” spokeswoman Annette Franco said. “We also supported our families by hosting parent meetings to discuss what we knew, listen to their concerns and provide our families the resources and support that they needed to overcome the situation, which impacted multiple schools districts in the state.”

Not guilty pleas

In March, the grand jury indicted Zeretzke for suspected lewd acts involving two Orange County girls and three girls in Los Angeles County, all of whom were under the age of 14.

An earlier federal indictment alleged that Zeretzke coerced a girl to produce child pornography, attempted to entice another person to send him sexually explicit images, received child pornography over the internet, and traveled to the Philippines to engage in sex with minors.

Zeretzke, who has pleaded not guilty to all state and federal charges, is being held in the Orange County Jail.

Since its founding in 2009, Flutes Across the World has worked with thousands of children across the United States, including school districts in Orange and Los Angeles counties, to create pairs of decorated flutes. Children taking part in the program would keep one flute, while the other was given away to children in other countries.

Flutes Across the World has led music missions to Haiti, the Philippines, Honduras and Native American Indian reservations. The organization also has sent “flute ambassadors” to Nepal, Africa and parts of southeast Asia, according to the organization’s website, which has since been removed.

Authorities in 2017 began collecting some of the flutes from students after learning they may have been contaminated with semen.

Details of case unfold

In her opening statement, Casillas told jurors that while Zeretzke was either in a hotel room near schools or at his residence, he made videos and took pictures of himself ejaculating onto and into the flutes.

Then, later in classrooms, Zeretzke photographed children using the flutes, Casillas said.

By the time the flutes were collected and tested, none revealed evidence of any semen. The prosecutor said Zeretzke is accused of engaging in “constructive touching.”

“It’s constructive when the perpetrator, without actually touching the victim, causes the victim to touch herself with an object regardless of whether or not the perpetrator is present,” Casillas said.

Zeretzke also is accused of rubbing a victim’s shoulders while in a classroom, massaging her back and whispering in her ear that she was pretty, the prosecutor said.

Social media accounts also show Zeretzke engaged in multiple online chats with another individual with whom he exchanged photos of the victims using the flutes, according to Casillas. In those chats, he allegedly described how his sexual desires and fantasies were fulfilled by the girls’ use of the flutes.

Zeretzke is scheduled to return to court for a pretrial conference on Aug. 14.