Predator Considered ‘Friend of the Family’

A convicted pedophile who authorities say may have preyed on hundreds of boys met two of his alleged victims through relatives he hired to work for him, according to court records.

Authorities say that Dean Arthur Schwartzmiller, 63, recorded his encounters with boys over the last 35 years in binders that were confiscated when officers raided his home here. There were 36,720 listings in all, but many of them were repetitive.

In the past, Schwartzmiller pleaded guilty once, no contest once and was convicted at least three times of molestation charges. One of those convictions was overturned.

In the latest cases, authorities spell out in court records how Schwartzmiller ingratiated himself with the families of two 12-year-old boys.

Schwartzmiller, a plastering contractor, hired the aunt of one boy to clean his house and the other boy’s father to work with him in construction.

Schwartzmiller played board and video games with the boys, who are cousins, bought them cell phones and invited them for sleepovers, according to police reports contained in court files.

One of the boys told police that Schwartzmiller paid them $30 every time they did yard work.

The mother of the other boy said he paid to send her son to a school to learn English and bought her children clothing, shoes and toys.

“She considered suspect Dean Schwartzmiller a friend of the family,” a police report said.

Her son told police he and his cousin had spent many nights at Schwartzmiller’s house after meeting him about three years ago.

Schwartzmiller is facing seven felony charges of child molestation, including one count of aggravated sexual assault. If convicted, he could be sent to prison for 105 years.

Schwartzmiller, who is being held without bail, is scheduled to enter a plea in Santa Clara County Superior Court on July 26.

Schwartzmiller was arrested in May in Snohomish County, Wash., where authorities believe he fled after a couple told police their son may have been molested by him.

His roommate, Fred Everts, 34, is facing seven charges in connection with molesting one of the boys. His bail has been set at $500,000. The arrests of Everts and Schwartzmiller were announced in June.

J.J. Kapp, a deputy alternate defender speaking for Everts’ attorney, David Hultgren, said he didn’t know how Everts would plead.

“It’s going to take some time to evaluate his case,” Kapp said.

As to whether Everts will cooperate with the authorities prosecuting Schwartzmiller, Kapp said he didn’t know if that would happen. “It’s a possibility in every co-defendant case,” he said. Everts is due back in court July 13.

During the search of Schwartzmiller’s home, police seized seven binders containing the first names of hundreds of boys under such headings as “boys who just cried” and “blond boys.”

Police also took computers, CDs and toys. In addition, they found boys’ underwear and shorts and two sleeping bags in the master bedroom.

During the search, police saw a picture of one of the boys in the current case on Schwartzmiller’s nightstand and a birthday card in Spanish from him to the boy.

The two boys allegedly victimized are Latino. Court records say Schwartzmiller speaks Spanish and Portuguese.

At a hearing in June, Deputy Dist. Atty. Steve Fein refused to say whether Schwartzmiller targeted Latino immigrant families. But he urged other victims to come forward, saying authorities had no interest in their immigration status.

“We just want to help them out,” Fein said.

In court papers, authorities recount how one of the San Jose boys described several incidents in which Schwartzmiller allegedly molested him after he had gone to sleep for the night.

He said Schwartzmiller unzipped his sleeping bag and removed his pants, although he resisted.

When he woke up the next morning, he said Schwartzmiller told him he was nude because Schwartzmiller’s “cat crawled into his sleeping bag and pulled his pants down.”

After Schwartzmiller fled to Washington, he called one of the boys and asked him to throw away his papers and CDs. The boy discarded many of the items in the dumpster at his apartment complex.

According to court records, the family discovered the items, the mother finding a nude picture of her son.

Members of the boys’ families then went to police May 22 and brought a bag containing notebooks, pictures of child pornography and other materials. Schwartzmiller was arrested the next day.

On the 300 block of Vineyard Drive in south San Jose, where Schwartzmiller had lived for a number of years with Everts, a former jail cellmate, one neighbor was not surprised by the arrests.

Although the men kept to themselves in their neat tan and white single-story house, Rosie Contreras said she was puzzled about why young boys were so often there.

Contreras, a 33-year-old mother of five who lives two doors down from Schwartzmiller, said she once asked her husband: “What is this white man doing with these two little Mexican boys?”

She said when her husband, Adrian, asked Schwartzmiller about the boys, he replied, “I’m the godfather.”