Minister Given 2-Year Term for Molesting 3 Girls

The former commander of the Salvation Army in Burbank was sentenced Monday to two years in County Jail for molesting three girls inside the organization’s office.

Glendale Municipal Judge Charles E. Horan also placed Gilbert Crowell, a minister with a wife and three children, on three years probation, ordered him to undergo counseling and prohibited him from working with children. Crowell, 29, could have faced a maximum sentence of four years.

Horan rejected a defense attorney’s request for Crowell to remain free on bail while appealing his conviction. The judge said Crowell is a threat to the community.

Crowell had been free on his own recognizance after he was convicted July 1 on four misdemeanor counts of child molestation and two counts of battery. He showed no emotion as he was sentenced, and hugged his tearful wife, Conchita, before bailiffs led him away.

Three girls testified during a weeklong trial that Crowell took them individually into the Salvation Army’s Burbank office and asked them to watch as he undressed and masturbated. The battery charges stem from fondling two of the girls, prosecutors said.

Burbank Deputy City Atty. Carolyn A. Barnes said the molestations occurred during a 12-month period ending in April, often on Sunday afternoons after youth group activities at the organization’s office at 300 E. Angeleno Ave.

The girls, ranging in age from 11 to 16, live in Glendale, Burbank and Sun Valley. Two were members of a Salvation Army youth group, Barnes said.

Before Horan imposed sentence, the mother of one victim and the grandfather of another told him that the girls were traumatized and had to seek counseling.

A seven-man, five-woman jury acquitted Crowell of five counts of battery and two of molestation involving two other girls.

Crowell, suspended from the Salvation Army upon his arrest April 29, was officially dismissed Monday, said Maj. Joe Noland, secretary general for the Salvation Army’s Southern California division. In accordance with Salvation Army regulations that require couples to work as a team, the organization also dismissed Conchita Crowell, who held the rank of captain jointly with her husband, Noland said.

But Noland said other, noncommissioned work will be found for Conchita Crowell in the Salvation Army. “We will certainly take care of his wife and children,” he said. “We certainly will not abandon them.”