Woman, 40, Faces Molestation Charge Involving a Boy, 12

A Mission Viejo woman has been ordered to appear at a Jan. 15 hearing on charges that she repeatedly molested a 12-year-old boy.

Kathleen Ann Lang, 40, faces 10 felony counts of molesting the Mission Viejo boy, a friend of her daughter, during overnight visits at her home from January to September, according to court documents.

The wife and mother of three, who pleaded innocent to the charges this week, was released from her job as director of the preschool program at Cordillera Elementary School soon after her Nov. 6 arrest.

Police first became involved in the case in September when the boy’s sister called police to tell them that her brother was “being held at a residence against his will,” according to a police report.

Went to Get Boy

The sister, who was responsible for the boy while their parents were out of town, reportedly went to Lang’s house to get the boy, but he refused to leave.

The sister told police that several times her brother had left the house during the night to meet Lang or to telephone her.

Lang later told police that the boy would call her and her husband late at night from pay telephones when he was having problems at home, according to court records.

After talking to police, the boy agreed to allow them to wiretap a phone conversation with Lang.

According to a police transcript of the conversation, Lang told the boy:

“I know you are in a very big predicament here, and I can’t tell you what to do. I can only tell you what I’ve always said, that I can’t undo what I did and you can’t undo what you did, and there’s a lot of things we did to hurt each other that we shouldn’t have done. Sometimes you do it in the name of love. . . . Some love is appropriate and some isn’t and I, I made a mistake; a very big mistake, and so did you.”

Lang also said, according to that transcript, that she had sought forgiveness from a priest, and that the boy should also forgive himself.

“I want you to take everything that you feel, all that guilt and all that hurt, and you put it on me and I’ll take it for you,” Lang reportedly told the boy.

The boy, who is one of seven children, told investigators that, at first, he enjoyed the individual attention he received from Lang, who often helped him with his homework.

Lang gave the boy his own bedroom at her home, according to court records. Several times, she allegedly waited until everyone was asleep, then went to his room.

‘Like a Sex Object’

As the encounters progressed, the boy told investigators that he began to feel “like a sex object.” He had thought of Lang as a friend “until she started doing that,” police quoted the boy as saying.

Lang has no previous arrests, according to police records.

Her job at the preschool “brings her in contact with a number of juveniles left in the care of the day-care students,” but there is no evidence of involvement with any other children, police reports said.

The Langs moved to Mission Viejo from Ohio in October, 1986. Lang has worked as an educator and has also been a school board member in another state.