‘Captain Jack’ Gets 24-Year Term : Anaheim Man Admitted He Sexually Molested 26 Girls

An Anaheim man who admitted sexually molesting his 6-year-old granddaughter, a 7-year-old neighbor and at least 24 other girls, was sentenced to 24 years in prison Thursday.

Robert Lee Wurgaft, 54, who retired at the age of 39 after selling nearly a dozen small-tool patents, was described by the prosecutor as among the worst, “if not the worst,” pedophile to ever appear in an Orange County court.

Superior Court Judge James O. Perez told Wurgaft, who went by the name “Captain Jack” when he solicited young girls: “It’s too bad you didn’t use your inventive mind for something better.”

Victim’s Mother Appeals

The sentencing on 69 child-molestation counts followed a tearful appeal for a maximum sentence by the mother of one of Wurgaft’s victims who declared: “No amount of justice can replace the loss of my daughter’s childhood.”

Wurgaft was investigated by police in 1983 and fled the day his granddaughter and the 7-year-old made statements to police about him. He was caught more than a year later by federal authorities and is now serving a 30-month federal sentence on a false passport charge.

Perez ordered that Wurgaft begin serving his prison sentence on the molestation conviction only after he finishes his federal prison time.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Robert Molko asked for a 40-year-sentence. Defense attorney Sylvan Aronson asked for three years, the minimum Perez could have given.

Dozen Charges Dropped

Later, Molko said he was “relatively satisfied” with Perez’s decision. It means that Wurgaft won’t be released from prison until he is 67 years old.

Aronson had vigorously argued that what Wurgaft had done “was wrong; but it’s not as wrong as the prosecutor says it is.”

Wurgaft originally was charged with 81 counts, including molesting his granddaughter and the neighbor girl, plus three others, ages 13, 14 and 16. The 12 charges involving the two younger girls were dropped by Molko in a plea agreement when Wurgaft pleaded guilty in August. But Molko dropped them only on the condition that he could introduce them as evidence at Wurgaft’s sentencing.

None of the 69 remaining charges involved the 24 girls Wurgaft had claimed he molested in his conversations with an undercover Anaheim police officer. But Molko brought them into his argument Thursday to convince Perez to give Wurgaft a stiff sentence.

Aronson argued that Wurgaft made it all up about the 24. “It was simply one pedophile boasting to another (the undercover officer posing as a pedophile),” Aronson said.

Pictures, Descriptions

Wurgaft had shown the undercover officer sexually explicit pictures of the 24 girls and described in detail the sex he had had with each one.

Aronson argued that Molko had dropped the molestation charges involving the 6-year-old granddaughter and the 7-year-old neighbor because the prosecutor knew he couldn’t win in court with them.

But Molko pointed out that Wurgaft already had admitted to his daughter (the granddaughter’s mother) that he had molested the girls. Also, a national study group hired by Aronson to make a recommendation to the court had included his admissions in their report. Five of the counts to which Wurgaft did plead guilty involved sexually explicit pictures he had taken of two girls.

Both the granddaughter and the neighbor testified against Wurgaft at a preliminary hearing before he changed his plea to guilty.

A friend of Wurgaft’s, William Reeves, 54, had pleaded guilty and has already been sentenced to three years and eight months in prison on charges of molesting the 7-year-old neighbor.

$19,000 for Therapy

The mother of the neighbor told the court that therapy for her daughter has so far cost $19,000, and that the incident has affected her happiness and her dealings with both adults and children.

“We’ve missed laughter . . . our days are filled with stress . . . because of what that man has done,” the mother said. She added that testifying and undergoing cross-examination were also traumatic experiences for her daughter.

Wurgaft, who is married to his third wife, has three children.

Wearing a yellow Orange County Jail jump suit, he chose to remain in the courtroom’s glassed-in holding cell instead of sitting at the table in front of the judge. He showed no emotion at the hour-long proceedings and looked up only occasionally when Molko and the girl’s mother were speaking.

Aronson said later that he personally was “very surprised, and very disappointed at Judge Perez.” But Wurgaft, he said, was prepared for the possibility of a stiff sentence.