He is convicted of attempting to molest a 13 year old girl, there is evidence that it was not the only time, he was a cop, the DA and the Department of Probation asked the judge for four years in state prison, and he only gets one year in jail plus probation. What’s wrong with this picture?
The judge is up for reelection in two years.
Over the last several years, there have been changes to the laws in California which generally result in fairly long prison terms with no probation for sexual predators. In some of these cases, the judges do not even have the choice to give a defendant probation. The long sentences, however, are generally based on a list of very specific actions taken by the defendants. The more bad things the defendants do to their victims, the more charges, the longer the sentences and the less opportunity for a judge to give probation.
Since these cases often involve the rape and/or murder of some innocent, often very young, victim, police departments and other organizations have taken to using sting operations to get the bad guys before they actually hurt somebody. In these stings, the police use the internet and other modern forms of communication to set up a meeting with the defendant and a decoy. The defendant thinks he is going to have sex with a 13 year old girl, but instead gets arrested for attempted child molestation.
The good news is that no child actually gets hurt. But, the bad news is that the sentences are very light because the bad guy didn’t actually go through with hurting somebody.
Deputy District Attorney Robert Mestman of the Orange County District Attorney’s office Sexual Assault Unit is the prosecutor for this case. He told www.OC180NEWS.com “On most of these child molests, the defendant isn’t eligible for probation–either the law says he’s not eligible or because we file an allegation that says the judge can’t give him probation. In most of these child molest cases, we’re taking discretion away from the judge and the judge has to sentence him to state prison. This is one of those cases where the judge has the discretion to give him probation. There are different laws that say if you commit these types of offenses, you can’t get probation. That law doesn’t apply to attempted child molest.”
Beginning Feb. 12, 2006, Stephen Robert Deck, 55, Carlsbad, initiated contact and engaged in sexually explicit conversations over the Internet with a person he believed to be a 13-year-old girl. The defendant was actually communicating with an adult citizen volunteer from Perverted-Justice.com, a non-profit organization aimed at protecting children from Internet sexual predators. Over several days, Deck had numerous online and phone conversations with a woman who told him she was a 13-year-old girl. He inquired if the girl liked older men, made graphic sexual statements and sexually suggestive comments about eating pie, and arranged to meet the “victim” in Laguna Beach.
On Feb. 18, 2006, Deck drove from San Diego County to Laguna Beach with the intention of committing unlawful sexual acts with the fake 13-year-old. When Deck arrived at the pre-arranged location, he was in possession of a digital camera and key lime pie and several condoms were located in his car. Deck was arrested upon attempting to make contact with the fictitious 13-year-old girl.
According to the DA’s Office press release, “During the trial, the People presented evidence that Deck had engaged in graphic, sexually explicit online conversations with two additional young girls, both of whom identified themselves as 13 years old. The defendant discussed wanting to meet each of the children and had a conversation with one of them suggesting that she sexually touch her 10-year-old sister.”
Mestman told www.OC180NEWS.com they could not prosecute Deck on these episodes because they were never able to identify the victims or nail down other important details.
Thus, the DA had only one count of attempted child molestation to charge, and California law provides for a softer sentence if the crime is only attempted and not consummated. Mestman said “For child molest, the maximum is 8 years, and on an attempt, the law says the maximum is half. In these kinds of sting operations, you can only charge an attempted crime.”
Thus, the maximum sentence, the one the DA was asking for, was only four years. Beyond the basics of a 51 year old man attempting to have sex with a 13 year old girl, there were two major reasons why the DA called for the maximum sentence. For one thing, at the time of the crime, Deck was an officer with the California Highway Patrol.
“It sends the wrong message to the public when a high ranking police officer who tried to molest a 13-year-old girl gets coddled by the criminal justice system,” stated Public Affairs Counsel Susan Kang Schroeder. “A child predator police officer should not get a break and a pass on state prison. His violation of trust makes his crime more serious not less.”
According to the press statement, “Deputy District Attorney Mestman argued in court that this is an aggravated case, arguing that the defendant should be denied probation and sentenced to the upper term. The defendant violated a position of trust and used his knowledge, experience, and training as a peace officer to assist in committing this crime and in avoiding detection.”
But, Orange County Superior Court Judge Marc Kelly, himself a former Deputy District Attorney, didn’t see it that way. In fact, he cited Deck’s service as one of the reasons for issuing a much lighter sentence than requested by the DA’s office.
In addition to Deck’s position as a CHP officer, the DA’s Office asked for the maximum sentence because of the danger Deck represents. The DA’s press statement said “it was abundantly clear that if the undercover decoy in this case was a real 13-year-old girl, Deck would have molested her. Deck, of all people, should have known the consequences of these actions, yet his sexual desires for a 13-year-old girl were too powerful to control. The prosecutor concluded that the defendant is a sexual predator who deserves to be imprisoned in state prison for the maximum term allowable under law.”
The DA’s Office was backed up in this view by the Orange County Department of Probation, OCDP. Again from the DA’s release, “OCDP recommended state prison, finding that ‘with regard to the serious nature of the offense, it is believed the defendant could be a future threat to the community and is not viewed as a suitable candidate for probation, even if he were eligible.’ “
Prosecutor Mestman said “Our experience is these sexual predators continue to reoffend. We’re obviously concerned about danger to the community, that’s why we wanted him to go to prison for the maximum.”
But, citing a lack of a previous record and apparently relying on the defendant’s doctors reports that he did not represent a serious risk, Judge Kelly brushed aside the DA Office’s and Probation Department’s concerns and sentencing recommendations. For the conviction of one felony count of attempted lewd acts on a child under 14, Judge Kelly sentenced Deck to one year in jail, five years of formal probation, and sex offender registration. His sentence was vigorously opposed by the Orange County District Attorney’s Office and the Orange County Department of Probation. He will be back on the streets in a few months.
Even though Deck will be a registered sex offender for the rest of his life, that doesn’t mean he will receive any direct supervision. The Department of Probation will monitor him for the next five years, but in the words of prosecutor Mestman, “after that, he is on his own.” Registration as a sex offender means only that Deck’s crime and address will be public information. He must update his information once a year and whenever he moves.
The DA’s office asked for the maximum sentence allowed under the law and the judge had the flexibility, which he exercised, to grant probation. How are judges held accountable for their actions? Well, for one thing, they don’t grant interviews to reporters. Judge Kelly will be up for reelection in 2012, but if nobody files to run against him, the race will not even appear on the ballot. Unlike other elected officials, such as County Supervisors, if a Superior Court Judge is unopposed, the public will not even know. For the June 8 election there are about 50 judges up for reelection. But voters will only see five of them on the ballot, because the others were unopposed.
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About Dolores Barr, Publisher
Dolores Barr has lived in Rossmoor since 1992 and has created this site to provide local news for the people of Los Alamitos, Seal Beach, Rossmoor, Leisure World, Sunset Beach, and Surfside, California. My husband and I have had two students graduate from the Los Alamitos Unified School District and currently our Grandson, Ricky Apodaca, grade 3 at Weaver Elementary, is actively involved in youth baseball through LAYB and youth football through FNL.
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