Irvine : Businessman Convicted of Selling Girls Cocaine
A 55-year-old Irvine businessman was convicted Thursday on five counts of selling cocaine to teen-age girls and two counts of having sexual contact with one of them three years ago.
Richard James McLane testified at his trial that he did have a sexual interest in teen-age girls and liked to videotape them in various states of undress. But he denied providing any of them with drugs and also denied having sexual contact with one of them.
McLane faces up to 10 years in prison when sentenced by Superior Court Judge Leonard H. McBride on Nov. 13.
McLane was arrested after a teen-age boy, who had been to his home, took some of McLane’s videotapes of the girls to police in December, 1985. A police search of McLane’s house turned up other tapes and two vials of cocaine.
The girls listed in the charges against McLane were 15 to 17 years old.
Deputy Dist. Atty. Kenneth O. Chinn said McLane, who owns his own window-cleaning business, did not trade drugs to the girls in exchange for them posing for him. But the girls were attracted to him, Chinn said, because McLane’s house, near Heritage Park south of the Santa Ana Freeway, “was a place to party.”
McLane, who is not married, has been free on $10,000 bail. He was not charged with violating any laws related to his videotaping the young girls.
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