Prowler Is Expected to Be Charged in Assaults : Crime: Sheriff’s officials plan to arrest the 37-year-old man in connection with sexual attacks on four Ojai-area women.

A twice-convicted prowler who has undergone treatment as a sex offender will be charged today or tomorrow with a string of Ojai-area sexual assaults, the Ventura County district attorney’s office said Wednesday.

Sheriff’s officials plan today to arrest 37-year-old Kevin Richard Malone on multiple charges of sexual assault involving four victims. He also will be charged with two burglary-related offenses, Chief Deputy Dist. Atty. Lela Henke-Dobroth said.

The arrest of Malone, now serving a seven-month term in County Jail on a peeping conviction, will end a yearlong investigation that has brought widespread criticism to the Sheriff’s Department.

During the probe, sheriff’s officials arrested the wrong man after saying an “overwhelming amount of evidence” linked him to the crime.

They also had Malone in custody for prowling last June before two of the four Ojai-area women were sexually assaulted. Malone was released, and two women were later assaulted.

Despite the setbacks in the case, officials have maintained their investigation has been solid.

Malone has been in custody since Jan. 22, after he was arrested on suspicion of looking into a woman’s window at the Tradewinds Apartments in Ventura, officials said.

Malone has been the primary suspect in the Ojai-area assaults since that arrest, officials said. Henke-Dobroth said her office had been awaiting DNA results before deciding whether to charge him.

“The district attorney’s office now has enough evidence to pursue charges,” she said Wednesday.

Jason Hawthorne of Casitas Springs had been charged with 24 sexual assaults and jailed for six days before being released Jan. 20. Later, after DNA tests cleared Hawthorne as a potential suspect, Dist. Atty. Michael D. Bradbury issued a rare public apology to the 21-year-old man.

But Henke-Dobroth said district attorney’s officials are confident in their case against Malone.

Defense attorney Willard P. Wiksell, Malone’s attorney, could not be reached for comment.

Contacted at her home, Malone’s mother said, “He’s had a couple brain surgeries, and he has had some problems.” She declined further comment.

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Investigators got their break against Malone when he allegedly spent nearly half an hour prowling Preble Avenue in Ventura before his Jan. 22 arrest. At 7:30 that morning, he was arrested after a resident phoned police with a complaint of a prowler. Malone was carrying a large pocketknife, a condom and some Vaseline, according to police reports. The Times received those reports on Feb. 3, but did not run a story because authorities had not decided to charge Malone.

In the Ojai sexual assaults, authorities were told that the suspect had a beard and drove a blue pickup truck with a camper shell. Both of those descriptions fit Malone when he was stopped by police in Ventura, the report said.

Malone had been arrested either for prowling or peeping on prior occasions. According to court records, he was picked up by Ventura County sheriff’s deputies for prowling June 20--after two of the Ojai-area attacks had already occurred.

It was not clear Wednesday if any charge was filed in that case, but Malone was eventually released.

Two other Ojai-area women were sexually assaulted last September and Henke-Dobroth said Malone will be charged with those crimes.

Malone also was ordered to participate in a sex offender treatment program at Chino State Prison after being convicted of peeping and prowling in 1989.

According to prison records obtained by The Times, Malone told counselors that he was physically abused as a child, but had said he did not want to use what happened to him to justify his criminal offenses.

The records state that Malone wanted to remember his childhood experiences “because he wants to stop having abusive thoughts toward women.”

“He wants to see what has been driving him,” the records say. “He does not understand his urge to abuse women. He is working towards seeing the core of his problem.”

Two days ago, Malone pleaded guilty to one count of peeping in connection with his January arrest in Ventura. He is serving a 210-day jail sentence.