Arcade Owner Is Arrested; Boys’ Molestation Alleged

An Ocean Beach video arcade owner who ran a Bible study group for boys and chaperoned the boys on weekend trips to Arizona was arrested Wednesday on molestation charges.

Police said they were first told two years ago that a man was abusing boys in the Ocean Beach area. But it was only two months ago that one of the young victims accused Ron J. Steckbauer, 34, owner of the popular Hyperspace Arcade on Newport Avenue, a block from the beach.

Steckbauer was arrested in his apartment on Niagara Avenue, a block from the arcade. Located between the arcade and his apartment is the San Diego Police Department’s Ocean Beach neighborhood storefront.

Popular Meeting Place

Officers assigned to the storefront said the arcade was a popular meeting place for teen-agers and they knew Steckbauer was holding Bible sessions for boys. But the officers said they had never heard of any complaints or even rumors that boys were being abused.

As police cars began assembling outside the storefront during the arrest, one mother walked inside and was shocked to learn that Steckbauer was under arrest. She said her son had been a frequent patron of the arcade, had attended the “OB Bible Study” sessions and had made the weekend trips to Arizona.

“Does this anger me?” she said, worried that her son had been abused but was afraid to tell her. “My feeling is I pray to God I have not put my son in a situation and have not been insensitive to a situation.”

She said that Steckbauer often drew boys to the weekly Bible classes with offers of free arcade tokens and that he gathered boys for the weekend trips by asking them to pay $20; in return, he provided food, transportation and lodging.

His blue van, parked outside his apartment, was searched by police, who found a camera, several Bibles and half-dozen pairs of boy’s underwear. A bumper sticker on the van proclaimed: “Christians Aren’t Perfect, Just Forgiven.” A neon sign in the arcade window said: “Help Keep a Clean Ocean Beach.”

Police said they have identified two victims. Through conversations with those boys and others, police now believe there may have been more than 100 individual sexual molestations committed against as many as 15 boys. Most of the boys are believed to be 10 to 14 years old.

“As more children come forward, it will become an ideal way to put the case together,” Sgt. Jorge Guevara said. “ . . . It all depends if the other victims come forward. That is a traumatic thing to do, for families to stand up and testify about something so tragic.”

Rick Clabby, an assistant district attorney assigned to the child abuse unit, said it is “a distinct possibility” that officials ultimately will establish that more than 100 sexual abuses occurred.

“It’s one of our bigger cases because of the potential for so many offenses,” Clabby said. “In a typical molestation, a lot of these kids have been abused over a long time and they never disclose it.”

Clabby said Steckbauer was arrested on a warrant charging him with 23 separate counts of sexually molesting two boys under 14, plus failure to register with local police as a convicted sex offender. Bail was set at $200,000.

He said Steckbauer was arrested for child sexual molestation in 1976 in Santa Monica and pleaded guilty in 1977. He was placed on five years’ probation. Under the terms of his conviction, he was ordered to register with the police department as a convicted pedophile wherever he lived.

Guevara said police learned almost two years ago that a child molester was operating in Ocean Beach.

Resident Alerted Police

“We received a telephone call from a citizen,” he said. “It was an anonymous call. We were unable to identify a suspect, and we learned later that the victim moved. We also received a second call, but that family wouldn’t come forward.”

He said police then received information from authorities in the Santa Monica area that Steckbauer had moved to Ocean Beach and had not registered as a pedophile.

“As far as we knew, he was just acting on his own, as a self-practicing minister,” Guevara said. “But then we found out it was just a pretense to bring in the children.”

As police wait for other parents to come forward, the mother who stopped in Wednesday morning at the storefront station said her son has never told her whether he was victimized.

“He never said anything about it,” she said. “But you better believe now I’m going to cross-examine my son about this.”

Authorities are asking any parents who think their children may have been molested to call the police child abuse unit at 531-2260.