Man to Stand Trial in Molestation Case : Courts: William Lynch is accused of assaulting four girls more than 20 years ago. Charges against ex-girlfriend are dropped.

A Municipal Court judge Thursday ordered a Santa Clarita man to stand trial on charges of molesting four girls more than 20 years ago, after prosecutors played a secret recording of a recent phone conversation in which he appeared to admit fondling one of the girls to check whether “you were still a virgin.”

The recording was made under the direction of authorities by one of the alleged victims, now an adult. She secretly taped an hourlong phone conversation last July with William Lynch, 64, discussing what she said were her memories of being molested by him when she was a child.

The tape was played Thursday on the second day of a preliminary hearing, which ended with Los Angeles Municipal Court Judge Thomas L. Willhite Jr. ordering Lynch bound over to Superior Court for trial on eight charges of lewd conduct with a minor.

The judge dismissed six other counts against Lynch. He dismissed all charges against Lynch’s ex-girlfriend, Mildred Fleetwood, 60, who had been named in eight counts of aiding and abetting molestation of one of the girls, ruling that the tape recording could not be used as evidence against her.

On the tape, Lynch tells the woman that Fleetwood “wanted me to examine if you were still a virgin.”

“Let’s face it, you can’t tell,” he says to her. “That was the first time I touched you.”

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After discussing Lynch examining her vagina, the woman who made the recording told him that she remembers him fondling and performing oral sex on her and trying to have sexual intercourse with her. She says she also remembers him and Fleetwood putting baby oil on her so that he could slide his penis between her breasts.

“I remember these things, Will, that’s not something that’s made up,” the woman told Lynch during the taped conversation. “It’s just too vivid and too many memories.”

“Like I said, I don’t remember a lot of the things you do,” Lynch responded.

Lynch is accused of molesting three sisters and their childhood friend from March, 1967, to July, 1972, when the girls were between 7 and 13 years old.

Prosecutors had charged Lynch and Fleetwood earlier this month under a new state law that allows suspects to be charged in child molestation cases within a year of the date a crime is reported to police, regardless of when it was actually committed--removing the previous statute of limitations.

The new law also requires that the charges involve “substantial” sex acts such as intercourse, oral copulation or penetration and that there be evidence to corroborate the allegations.

Judge Willhite found that prosecutors had failed to produce enough evidence to back up the eight counts of aiding and abetting against Fleetwood, and that the recording could not be used against her because it contains statements by a co-defendant. A disappointed Deputy Dist. Atty. Francesca Frey said she will appeal the judge’s decision not to allow use of the tape against Fleetwood.

“This is a good result,” said Verah Bradford, a public defender representing Fleetwood. “I don’t think it does any good to prosecute Fleetwood as a criminal.”

In reaching his decision on Lynch, Judge Willhite found there was sufficient evidence and also that “substantial sexual conduct” had occurred during eight of the alleged incidents, but not the remaining six.

Frank Di Sabatino, an attorney representing Lynch, said he hopes the other eight counts will be dismissed in Superior Court, where he plans to ask a judge to rule that the new state law cannot be applied retroactively to Lynch, who is scheduled to be arraigned July 7.

Both defense attorneys previously filed the same motion in Municipal Court, but the judge ruled against them.

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During the preliminary hearing, the three sisters testified that Lynch repeatedly molested them.

Their childhood friend, now 35, testified that during a 1991 visit to Lynch’s Santa Clarita home he told her that he was sleeping in the same bed with a very young girl he sometimes watched over.

However, it was not until two years later, after receiving therapy--which she said helped her to recall details and attach feelings to the alleged molestations she had endured--that she was able to report the assaults on herself to sheriff’s deputies, the woman said.