Canyon Country Case : Scout Leader Gets 6-Year Term for Molesting Boys

A Canyon Country Boy Scout leader was sentenced Wednesday to six years in prison for molesting five Scouts during overnight gatherings at his home.

There were grins and a few tears among the five boys as San Fernando Superior Court Judge Robert D. Fratianne imposed the sentence, which also included a $500 fine, on Craig Ralph Mathias.

Mathias had pleaded guilty Aug. 27 to five felony counts of child molestation.

Mathias’ wife burst into tears when Fratianne said he would not be swayed from imposing the sentence because the couple has a newborn son.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Pamela S. Davis-Springer, who had argued for the six-year sentence, said the boys, ages 10 to 14, had been accused at school of being homosexuals and deserved to see Mathias punished.

Work Furlough Urged

“This sends a clear message to other men who would exploit a position of trust for their own perverse needs: ‘Don’t do it,’ ” Davis-Springer said.

Mathias’ lawyer, Ronald V. Taylor, asked that his client be enrolled in a work furlough program instead of being sent to state prison. In a letter to the probation department, Mathias wrote that he had acted irrationally by engaging in activities that were “indecent and immoral.” He wrote that he had been grief-stricken that his closest friend was dying of leukemia.

Mathias was arrested July 1 after a two-week investigation by the Juvenile Operations Bureau of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department determined he had molested the Scouts on several occasions over an 18-month period between January, 1986, and July, 1987, Deputy Pete Fosselman said. The incidents occurred during “sleepovers” at Mathias’ rural home, Fosselman said.

The investigation began after one boy reported Mathias’ activities to the Sheriff’s Department in June. The boy had originally met Mathias through the Big Brothers program, Davis-Springer said.

Nine of the 20 boys in Mathias’ Boy Scout troop told deputies that, after Mathias’ wife went to bed, Mathias often engaged them in games that ended in sexual play that included his fondling them, Deputy Tom Kerfoot said.

Mathias was originally charged with six felony counts of child molestation and three misdemeanor counts involving the nine boys. To spare the children from testifying, Davis-Springer said she agreed to allow Mathias to plead guilty to felony counts involving five of the boys in exchange for a lighter sentence.

If Mathias had been convicted in a trial, he could have been sentenced to a maximum of 12 years in prison.