Mental Tests Ordered for ‘Big Brother’ Guilty of Molesting
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A San Fernando Superior Court judge Friday ordered a former member of Big Brothers who was convicted of molesting his “little brother” to undergo psychiatric testing before being sentenced.
Mark Dewayne Yerkes, a 29-year-old stunt man from Granada Hills, sat quietly during the proceedings. His mother cried softly as Judge Robert D. Fratianne denied bail and ordered that Yerkes be taken into custody for diagnostic studies.
About 25 of Yerkes’ friends, including some from his Bible study group at Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, also attended the proceedings.
Yerkes was convicted Dec. 26 of nine counts of child molestation for sexually assaulting an 11-year-old boy over a two-year period beginning shortly after he became the boy’s Big Brother in 1982. An earlier jury deadlocked on the same charges.
Before ordering the diagnostic study, Fratianne denied a motion for a new trial made by Howard R. Price, Yerkes’ attorney. Price argued that the court incorrectly admitted certain evidence and that the jury’s guilty verdict was not supported by the evidence.
Yerkes is scheduled to return for sentencing June 6.
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