Ex-Deputy Gets 43 Years in Child Molestations

A former Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy was sentenced to 43 years in prison Friday for molesting his two daughters and three other children.

Thomas Taylor, 37, was convicted Sept. 5 of 19 counts of child molestation, which included oral copulation, sodomy and lewd and lascivious acts with children under 14.

Superior Court Judge Judith Chirlin sentenced Taylor to the maximum term the law provides on the principal charge because “this crime involved great bodily injury and a high degree of cruelty and callousness.”

Taylor’s wife, Kathy, 28, who was convicted of two felony counts of child endangering because she did not report the molestations and one misdemeanor charge of child endangering, was sent for a 90-day psychiatric diagnosis to help the judge determine whether the woman is a good candidate for probation.

The 1984 molestations were revealed when one of Taylor’s victims told her mother of the activity, and the mother notified police.

‘Lived Two Loves’

Taylor’s victims, ages 5 to 12 when they were molested, included his daughter from his marriage to Kathy Taylor, his daughter from a previous marriage, a baby sitter and two girls being cared for by the Taylors.

Before she sentenced him, Chirlin told Taylor, “You lived two lives--one inside the home and one outside the home. Outside, you were a person known as a hard worker, a dedicated, law-abiding citizen and a good family man.”

But, she added, inside the home “you used whatever young girl was within reach to satisfy your sexual desires.”

Chirlin also told Taylor, who looked down at the defense table, “You used your daughters for your own sexual gratification, yet you appear to me to show no remorse.”

Defense attorney Robert Rentzer said Taylor was “a model to other deputies” and asked Chirlin not to impose the maximum sentence because of the deputy’s long record of service.

But Deputy Dist. Atty. Steven Morgan said Taylor should receive the maximum term.

“Part of these prosecutions is to show to other deputies that when you molest children . . . for a number of years, you go to prison for a long time,” Morgan said.

He also asked for the maximum prison time for Taylor’s wife, claiming that “she made premeditated choices to allow the children to be molested. . . . She chose to let those girls be molested.”

Kathy Taylor will be sentenced Jan. 16 after the psychiatric diagnosis is completed.

The four-week trial included testimony from the victims of the sexual abuse. Taylor’s 14-year-old daughter from a previous marriage testified that her father raped her at least 20 times about nine years ago in West Virginia.

Rentzer said he would appeal the case on the grounds that child witnesses were not properly sworn before their testimony.