Local News in Brief : Honored Adoptive Father Is Acquitted in Molestation Case
A Canoga Park man honored by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors this year for his role as an adoptive parent was acquitted Thursday of charges that he molested and battered an 8-year-old girl.
A San Fernando Municipal Court jury acquitted Mark Neudorff, 32, who was accused of touching and molesting the girl on the outside of her clothes in his home in April, 1985.
Deputy City Atty. Susan Lopez said allegations against Neudorff first surfaced in late January or February when the girl, whose mother cleaned house for the Neudorffs, told a therapist that she had been molested. Neudorff was arrested in June and charged with misdemeanor battery and child molestation.
Lopez based most of her case on the testimony of the girl, whereas Neudorff’s attorney, Michael J. Skene, argued that Neudorff could not have been home when the molestation was supposed to have occurred.
Neudorff and his wife have adopted two children and are in the process of adopting three more.
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