ROTC Molesting Case Goes to Jury

A former Redondo Union High School ROTC student wove “a tangled web of deceit” when she accused the program’s director of sexually molesting her over a two-year period, the lawyer for the director argued Wednesday.

As he dramatically ripped aside the cover from a huge drawing of a web featuring conflicting statements by the former student radiating out from a photograph of her, attorney Tony Capozzola argued that his client--retired Marine Corps Master Gunnery Sgt. Allen Roth--has been the real victim in the case.

“In my opinion, she committed worse crimes on that stand than he ever thought of committing,” Capozzola said of the former cadet, now 18.

In his closing argument to the jury, Capozzola repeatedly called the young woman “a pathological liar.” He also said, “She played this whole courtroom and this whole case like a fiddle, changing her story capriciously.”

Deputy Dist. Atty. Ron Geltz, however, urged Torrance Superior Court jurors to use their common sense, not their emotions, in deliberating Roth’s fate.

Geltz noted that Roth, 65, frequently gave the teen-age girl affectionate cards, notes and gifts, including one in which he told her: “Whatever we started, I hope it can continue.”

Geltz also pointed out that when the girl repeatedly mentioned their sexual relationship during taped telephone conversations with Roth last December, the retired Marine did not acknowledge or deny her accusations.

“I’m asking you to listen to that tape with your common sense as to how people respond to these kinds of statements,” Geltz told jurors. “It is clear from all of this that he had sexual intentions toward this young girl.”

Roth was arrested Dec. 5, one day after the teen-ager told the school principal and Redondo Beach police that she had been molested several times by the ROTC director between June, 1988, and May, 1990. The girl was 15 at the time of the first alleged incident.

Although she initially told authorities that Roth raped her, the girl later said she consented to the sexual acts.

Roth, a decorated World War II veteran who had been with the program six years, has been on an unpaid leave of absence from his ROTC job since his arrest.

He is charged with four counts of oral copulation with a minor and one count of unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor. If convicted, he could be sentenced to more than five years in state prison.

In closing arguments, Capozzola hinted that the tape of the phone conversations had been edited to hide that Roth, who is hard of hearing, did not clearly understand the nature of the conversation.

Capozzola also questioned the prosecution’s motives.

“We’re talking here about a felony that probably goes on 8 billion times a day. I have no doubt that this is a selective prosecution,” he said. “They want this guy, don’t they? They want him. The big mystery is, why do they want him so bad?”

Geltz said the defense was relying on “excuses, excuses, excuses.”

“Nobody here is trying to say that Allen Roth is the most terrible person ever to come into a courtroom,” he said. “But what is unfortunately true is that he commited these simple crimes . . . and the law is what matters in this case.”

Following closing arguments, jurors were dismissed for the day. They are scheduled to begin their deliberations this morning.