Molestation Suspect’s Letters Released : Children: Social worker who was arrested last week had branded his department too eager to condemn sexual acts involving youngsters.

Gerald Davis, a veteran Los Angeles County social worker arrested last week for allegedly molesting children, had argued publicly in the past year that his agency was too quick to condemn sexual acts involving youngsters, according to letters released Monday by the County Commission for Children’s Services.

In two letters sent by Davis to county supervisors and other officials, he maintained that a range of sexual conduct--including acts between adults and children--should be researched as an inevitable social phenomenon, rather than investigated as crimes.

In a July 14, 1989 letter, Davis wrote: “It is time to acknowledge that our norms for nonviolent erotic experiences of young people in this society fail to reflect actual practice. . . . We are learning that non-offenders, probably a very large percentage of our male population, can respond genitally to erotic stimuli related to children and youth.”

Commissioners said Monday that they were outraged by Davis’ letters. They also were upset that top officials at the county Department of Children’s Services--who apparently knew of Davis’ views--waited until his arrest last week before removing him from his job as a supervising social worker in the agency’s Belvedere office in East Los Angeles. Davis pleaded innocent on Monday.

“It’s appalling,” said Commissioner Stacey Winkler. “It’s shocking. It’s inexcusable.”

Said Helen Kleinberg, the commission president: “He should have been taken away from dealing with kids. That’s the bottom line. . . . We are all very concerned about cases that he has handled.”

The commissioners became furious when department officials refused to discuss the Davis case Monday. The 15-member panel, appointed by supervisors to oversee the department, demanded to know what action, if any, had been taken against Davis. But Catherine Tracy, the agency’s second-in-command, said she had been ordered not to talk about the case because it is a legal matter. She would not say who gave her the order.

In an interview after the commission meeting, department spokesman Emery Bontrager, while declining to discuss the specifics of the case, said the department was unable to punish Davis for his philosophy.

“You have to take punitive action against an employee based upon his performance,” Bontrager said. “Writing a letter is not grounds to move against an employee, and therefore we had to look at his performance.”

The controversy over Davis, a 28-year department employee, comes as the beleaguered Department of Children’s Services already is under fire for failing to comply with state regulations intended to protect the county’s 50,000 abused and neglected children.

State officials have stripped the department of its authority to license foster homes. Now, with the Legislature declaring it has “no confidence” in the management of the county department, the state is moving to seize control of the entire $457-million county child welfare services system.

Meanwhile, County Supervisor Deane Dana--who forwarded the July 14, 1989 letter by Davis to the Department of Children’s Services--said Monday that he has asked County Administrative Officer Richard Dixon to explore what immediate action the county can take when an employee “divulges certain tendencies that may potentially endanger children under his or her jurisdiction.”

Dana said he did not want a repeat of the “terrible delay that occurred between the first alarm in July of 1989” and Davis’ arrest Wednesday.

At his arraignment Monday in Long Beach Municipal Court, Davis, 54, pleaded not guilty to 23 counts of lewd and lascivious conduct that allegedly occurred this year with seven children--four boys and three girls--ranging in age from 1 1/2 to 9.

The alleged victims are relatives of Davis’ and children who live in his Long Beach neighborhood. Authorities said they are looking for other possible victims, but the prosecutor handling the case said he knows of “no evidence” that suggests Davis molested children he worked with in his county job.

Davis, who has been unable to raise his $500,000 bail, remained in county custody.

Sources within the department said Davis’ outspokenness about his views had troubled his colleagues, who had complained to their superiors about it. One source said top department officials had relieved Davis of some of his authority but were reluctant to demote him from his position as a supervisor.

Davis himself complained that he had been punished for his views. In February, he wrote county supervisors to complain that he was bypassed for promotion and that his efforts to “speak candidly . . . have been rewarded with severe penalties by the agency I have tried to help.”

The letters released by the commission Monday were lengthy and in some passages seemed to ramble as Davis discussed what he called “serious problems in the economics and ethics of delivering social services to abused and neglected children and their families.”

In one of the letters, Davis complained that the harm of such sexual activity is often “irrationally exaggerated”; that society unfairly imposes moral taboos which deny children their sexual freedom; and that children who report they have been molested by family members “are never warned that their disclosures could send their loved ones to prison.”

One eight-page letter concluded as follows: “We need to begin to move away from all criminal sanctions that seem to be based primarily on our need to punish irrationally the pleasure seeking, loving drives of mankind.”

The letters were an appeal to public officials to place restraints on social workers as they investigate allegations of sexual misconduct involving children. The letters indicate he sent copies to numerous agencies and individuals, including judges, the governor, the American Civil Liberties Union and newspapers.

In addition to the two letters released by the commission Monday, Davis aired similar views last year in a county newsletter entitled “The Voice.” This article, sources said, especially upset his colleagues in the Children’s Services Department, who believed it demonstrated his willingness to return children to households where they might be sexually abused.

Times staff writers Bettina Boxall and Kim Kowsky contributed to this story.