Boy, 16, Molested : Camarillo Banker Gets 360 Days in Sex Crimes

A former volunteer crisis-intervention worker was sentenced to a 360-day jail term Wednesday for sexually molesting a 16-year-old boy who sought help from the service.

Gene Randall, 56, of Camarillo was also ordered to pay $15,273 to reimburse the boy’s family for the teen-ager’s hospitalization, counseling and continuing therapy, said Sandi Wright, a clerk for Ventura County Superior Court Judge Charles McGrath. Randall also received five years’ probation.

Randall pleaded guilty in July to six counts of oral copulation with a minor. He is to begin his jail sentence Sept. 30 in the Ventura County Jail, Wright said.

Stepped Down at Bank

Randall resigned in April as chairman of the board of the Camarillo Community Bank, which he helped found in 1979. He also operated a mortgage-brokering business. In 1976, he was named Camarillo Man of the Year by the local Chamber of Commerce.

The maximum sentence was six years in prison, but prosecutors sought a year in jail and probation because of Randall’s exemplary community record, Ventura County Deputy Dist. Atty. Charles W. Campbell Jr. said.

“I felt that, given his background and the tremendous amount of support that he had in the community, and a background of doing an awful lot of good for people, that that ought to count for something,” Campbell said.

Randall met the 16-year-old boy last year through a program sponsored by Interface Children and Family Services, which provides counseling and shelter to runaways and homeless children, the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department said.