SIMI VALLEY : Woman Testifies That Father Molested Her

The adult daughter of a Simi Valley man testified Thursday that her father sexually molested her more than 150 times when she was a child, but that she kept the attacks hidden in her memory for 25 years.

The Paso Robles woman, known only as Diane T. for purposes of the civil trial just under way in Ventura County Superior Court, alleges that her father molested her in their Lancaster home while she was between the ages of 8 and 11.

The 37-year-old woman, who said she suffers severe psychological trauma and maintains an aversion to authority figures because of the molestation, is asking Judge Barbara L. Lane to award her cash damages for the childhood trauma.

The plaintiff testified that she was reminded of the molestations only after a January, 1991, phone call from her father, who told her that his own mother was near death.

“The memories returned after finding out my grandmother was hospitalized,” Diane said. “We were as close as we could be.”

The father has steadfastly denied molesting his daughter, saying his daughter filed suit out of revenge. After his mother died, Diane “became enraged when none of the estate went to her and I refused to share any of it with her,” the father said in court papers. Then “she dusted off an old lie she told her stepmother. . .that she had been sexually molested by me.”

The father was arrested in 1967 when his second wife--Diane’s stepmother--told police that the girl had been molested, said defense attorney Jeffrey S. Frasier.

“Although it wasn’t true, he ultimately admitted that something was done” to spare his family the trauma of a court trial, Frasier said.

But records of the 1967 misdemeanor conviction had been destroyed and details of the case were unavailable, he said.