SIMI VALLEY : Court Overturns Molest Conviction

The state appeals court has overturned the child-molestation convictions of a Simi Valley cartoonist, who created the Hustler magazine feature “Chester the Molester,” on grounds that the jury was improperly shown hundreds of the sexually explicit cartoons during the trial.

The 2nd Court of Appeal ruled Tuesday that Ventura County Superior Court Judge Lawrence Storch improperly allowed the jury in the trial of Dwaine Beverly Tinsley, 46, to see about 3,200 cartoons, many of them by Tinsley.

Tinsley was sentenced in 1990 to six years in prison on five counts of sexual assault for molesting a girl from the time she was 13 until she was 17. The jury acquitted him on six other charges involving the girl and deadlocked on five others, which were dismissed.

The girl testified at trial that Tinsley showed her his monthly work product of about 40 cartoons, some of which depicted an older man molesting young girls. The prosecutor argued that Tinsley meant to persuade the girl that such behavior was acceptable.

Tinsley’s attorney tried to have the cartoons excluded on the grounds that they did not prove that he committed the alleged crimes.

But Storch admitted the cartoons into evidence. When Tinsley asked for a new trial, Storch said the cartoons “did not pollute the verdict since the jury acquitted (him) of more counts than it convicted him on,” court papers said.

But Appeals Court Justice Steven J. Stone disagreed in his opinion.

“If (Tinsley) was acquitted of more counts than he was convicted on, why was he convicted at all?” Stone wrote. “If the jury believed the defense in part, then it is reasonable to conclude that the cartoon evidence tipped the scales of justice against (Tinsley).”

Chief Deputy Dist. Atty. Vincent O’Neill Jr. said the state attorney general’s office plans to appeal the ruling to the state Supreme Court. Tinsley will remain in state prison until that court decides whether to hear the appeal, he said.