3 Molesters Could Be Freed Today

Three men serving prison sentences for molestation convictions in Orange County could be freed as early as today because of a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision that invalidated a California law that had extended the statute of limitations for their crimes, defense attorneys said Thursday.

“I’ve asked for immediate release from custody for our client,” said Assistant Public Defender Kevin Phillips.

Phillips is representing Terrell Leon Gafford, 53, who was sentenced in January to eight years in prison after he admitted molesting his teenage daughter in the 1980s.

Two other child molesters, Angel Amado Perez and Mario Lopez Lua, are also expected to be freed. Their attorneys joined Phillips in filing identical habeas corpus briefs in Orange County Superior Court for their release.

Perez, 57, was convicted in 2000 of molesting two Santa Ana sisters 20 years earlier and is serving a nine-year sentence. Lopez, 37, was sentenced to three years in prison in April 2002 after pleading guilty to molesting a young girl in 1985.

The three men’s convictions were made possible by a 1999 California Supreme Court decision that allowed prosecutions of sex offenders even after the statute of limitations had expired. The U.S. Supreme Court last month ruled that law unconstitutional.

Theirs are the first known cases in Orange County in which imprisoned sex offenders became eligible for release under the U.S. Supreme Court ruling. Their convictions could be overturned, and they may not be required to register as sex offenders when they walk out of prison.

Attorney Fred McBride, who represents Perez, said he hoped his client’s release will be “accomplished through an expedited process.” He said Perez’s trial was delayed while his attorneys challenged the legality of the law passed by the Legislature, which extended the statute of limitations for sex crimes such as child molestations.

He said that Perez’s prosecution had a “terrible impact” on his family and “everyone involved in this sad case.” Perez’s victims were his stepdaughter and another girl.

Allan Stokke, who represents Lopez, said he expected his office to file a brief on Lopez’s behalf Thursday. He said the district attorney’s office had indicated prosecutors will not oppose his effort to get Lopez released.

Lopez pleaded guilty to molestation charges, but Stokke said “the evidence against him was not all that clear at the time, and it was very old.” At the time, Lopez had a well-paying job in the construction industry, and his “boss has been informed that his conviction was overturned,” he said.

Officials at the district attorney’s office did not respond to requests for comment. But McBride said prosecutors from the office’s sex crimes unit had alerted him and the other attorneys that their clients’ convictions were affected by the U.S. Supreme Court decision.

The court’s decision created a groundswell of anger from sex crime victims and victims’ rights groups. The ruling ended hundreds of investigations of alleged child molesters and other alleged sex offenders throughout the state. Some suspects who were in jail awaiting trial were freed hours after the ruling.

But Stokke said criticism should be aimed at the Legislature for passing a law that was unconstitutional in the first place.

“The criticism should be focused on the Legislature that responded without thinking and passed a law that no other state has passed. I can understand why the victims are upset, but they are upset with the wrong entity. It was the Legislature that gave them false hope,” Stokke said.