Countywide : Molester Sentenced to One Year in Jail
A Huntington Beach man who pleaded guilty to 13 felony counts of fondling nine boys in a day-care center was sentenced Wednesday to a year in Orange County Jail and five years of probation.
John Howard Nokes, 25, was arrested April 3 and charged with molesting the boys, whose average age was 10, while working as director of a YWCA program at the El Toro Marine School in East Irvine.
Nokes could have been sentenced to up to 32 years in prison.
Orange County Deputy Dist. Atty. Ariadne Symons said she agreed to a negotiated plea by Nokes because the molestation did not involve rape, oral copulation or sodomy.
Two of the boys said they were fondled underneath their clothing, while the others said they were fondled outside their clothes.
Symons also said she did not wish to traumatize the boys by forcing them to testify about the encounters.
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