Girl, 12, Sues Lancaster Man Found Guilty of Sexually Molesting Her : Litigation: The Newbury Park seventh-grader targets her godfather in the unusual civil action.

In a rare move, a 12-year-old Ventura County girl, who wrote to activist attorney Gloria Allred to enlist her help, announced Tuesday that they are suing a Lancaster man convicted of sexually molesting the girl.

The lawsuit by Desiray Bartak, a seventh-grader from Newbury Park, seeks unspecified monetary damages from the girl’s godfather, Richard Streate, 29, on grounds of child sexual abuse, sexual battery, assault, emotional distress and negligence.

“It’s so other children will come forward. That’s why I’m doing this. And to have parents realize it does happen,” said Bartak after she, her mother Wayanne Marschner and Allred held a news conference at Allred’s Mid-Wilshire area office to announce the lawsuit.

Court records show that Streate is to be sentenced Tuesday in Lancaster Superior Court on felony child molestation charges. The prosecutor confirmed that Streate pleaded guilty to a charge of committing lewd acts upon a child and that Bartak was a victim in the case.

Although the filing of civil lawsuits by adults who allege sexual abuse when they were children has become common, Allred said she knew of no case similar to Bartak’s, in which the suit was brought by a child sexual abuse victim.

Streate, her father’s best friend since childhood, was her godfather, she said. The girl said she was staying at Streate’s former house in the Littlerock area of the Antelope Valley on July 4, 1990, with Streate’s daughter, a friend. According to Bartak’s lawsuit, Streate entered her room as she slept and fondled her. Bartak did not report the alleged incident then.

But when Streate later attempted to molest her again, at his house in Lancaster on Aug. 5, 1991, she told her father, James Bartak, about the incident, the girl said in the lawsuit. Her father did not believe her account at first, but the girl also told her mother and they later reported the allegation to sheriff’s deputies, the girl and her mother said.

Bartak’s father is divorced from her mother and now lives in Palm Springs.

In a statement at the news conference, Bartak blamed Streate for her nightmares, loss of sleep and thoughts of suicide. “I was ashamed and thought I did something wrong,” she said. But Allred said the girl believes speaking out now through the civil case will help in her healing.

Bartak said she learned from friends of her mother that, apart from the criminal case, she could seek civil damages and reimbursement for her visits to therapists. Bartak said she decided some months ago to write a letter to Allred seeking her help, because she had seen Allred on television.

Bartak said she plans to attend Streate’s sentencing and speak to the judge in court, as the victim in the case.

She said she had to change schools after classmates found out about the incident and made fun of her, saying it was her fault. “I am not going to run or hide or pretend it never happened,” she said. “He made my life a living hell.”