D.A. Drops Tustin Molestation Case

The county district attorney’s office said Thursday that criminal charges will not be filed against a Tustin man and his son who were under investigation for allegations of molesting three girls at an unlicensed child-care operation in Tustin.

In a prepared statement, Deputy Dist. Atty. Kelly MacEachern cited the ages of the girls--3, 4 and 8--and their inability to recall “dates and times in detail necessary for court presentations” for not pursuing the case.

Tustin police Lt. Frank Semelsberger concurred that the case is “now closed, unless additional information is discovered.”

The focus of the investigation was Oliver Smith, 47, and his son, Jeff, 21. Smith’s wife, Patricia, 48, provided day care to the three girls and about three other children in the 2100 block of Apple Tree Drive.

Patricia Smith, who has cared for up to two dozen children since 1985, was not considered a suspect, Semelsberger said.

Police have said neither Smith nor his son has any record of child abuse or molestation. The two men declined direct comment on the investigation but authorized their attorney, Paul S. Meyer, to issue a response.

Meyer said the Smiths are “satisfied” with the investigation and hope it dispels “any cloud of suspicion” created by news reports of the police inquiry.

He said the Smith child-care operations “were open to close scrutiny,” so the decision not to prosecute “should finally put the matter to rest.”

Police began investigating last month after the father of one of the girls contacted police. He reported that his daughter said something that led him to believe that she had been molested.

But interviews with the youngest of the girls proved difficult because of her age and inability to remember specific facts, according to a joint statement issued by the district attorney’s office and the Tustin Police Department.

Parents of the other girls also decided “to spare their children . . . the trauma” of further interviews by investigators, the statement added.

Patricia Smith has a clean record with state child-care officials, according to police and Fred Miller, deputy director of licensing for the California Department of Social Services.

In the course of checking the father’s record, however, officers found that Patricia Smith had no day-care license for her home and thus was in violation of the state Health and Safety Code. She had been licensed through 1985 at a previous home the couple owned in Tustin but had failed to reapply for a new license, as required by law when they moved, Semelsberger said.

In mid-November, police asked Patricia Smith to suspend her child-care program until she obtained the license.

Meyer declined to comment Thursday on whether Patricia Smith had resumed her business.