VENTURA : Molester Sentenced to 14 Years in Prison

A 32-year-old drifter who molested three young girls as they slept in their beds was sentenced Thursday to 14 years in prison.

Accompanying Dennis Fredman to prison will be a recommendation that he receive counseling for his methamphetamine addiction, which prosecutors say led the defendant to break into three strangers’ houses in the Ventura area and molest the 10- and 11-year-old girls.

The nighttime assaults took place during the last six months of 1991. Each victim was awakened by Fredman sitting on her bed, molesting her.

One girl was attacked while her parents slept nearby.

Fredman’s case was tied up in the courts for almost three years while he fought prosecution efforts to introduce DNA evidence tying him to the assaults.

After the evidence was ruled admissible, Fredman was found guilty in December of three child molestation charges by acting Superior Court Judge Bruce A. Clark. Deputy Public Defender Gary Windom said Fredman will appeal the DNA ruling.

Fredman could have been sentenced to as much as 24 years in prison. Deputy Dist. Atty. Matthew J. Hardy called for a stiff sentence but said something less than the maximum might be justified because Fredman agreed that the victims did not have to testify against him at the trial.

Court records state that at least two of the girls were severely traumatized by the assaults and continue to suffer because of them.

Prosecutors originally charged Fredman with 27 criminal counts, but they later reduced the charges to 16. In a technical legal maneuver that preserves his appeal rights, Fredman agreed to be convicted of the three most serious charges in exchange for having the other 13 dismissed.

Hardy said conviction on the 13 charges probably would not have resulted in additional prison time.