The State - News from Aug. 10, 1988

A church janitor accused of kidnaping three Sacramento area girls and keeping one under a church for as long as six weeks was charged with sexually molesting two of the girls. Kenneth Alvin Michel stood motionless, hands clasped in front of him, while prosecutors in Sacramento Municipal Court amended the criminal complaint against him to include eight felony counts of committing lewd acts with a child. Michel, 32, also faces three felony counts of kidnaping. The additional charges were “based on the totality of the evidence. I can’t say what it (the evidence) includes, or what it doesn’t,” Ken Peterson, assistant chief district attorney, said. Prosecutors have said that Michel admitted to police that he sexually molested the two girls. But questions remain over how well authorities are communicating with Michel, who is deaf, and police also have said that the girls denied they were molested.