OJAI : Inmate Charged in Sexual Assaults

A man in jail on a prowling conviction was charged Thursday with 25 felony counts related to a string of sexual assaults that outraged residents of the Ojai Valley.

Arraignment for Kevin Richard Malone, 37, was postponed until March 30 to allow his attorney to examine the evidence in the case.

Malone, who appeared briefly in Municipal Court on Thursday, is serving a seven-month jail sentence for peeping in a Ventura woman’s apartment window. Bail in the sexual assault case is set at $500,000.

Malone is the second man to be charged with the assaults, which occurred between December, 1993, and September, 1994. Prosecutors dismissed charges against the first suspect after genetic tests ruled him out as the assailant.

Sheriff’s Department officials, in a statement released Thursday, said their investigators have collected “a substantial amount of physical and genetic evidence that implicates Malone” in the attacks on four women.

Officials refused to elaborate on the evidence, saying they did not want to jeopardize their case.

Chief Deputy Dist. Atty. Lela Henke-Dobroth, who is prosecuting the case, also would not elaborate on the case against Malone. But the DNA test results, she said, “certainly had a bearing on his arrest and the charges being filed.”

Malone is charged with several counts of forcible sexual assault, plus burglary, residential robbery and assault.

Longtime Ojai Councilwoman Nina Shelley said Thursday she is anxious to see the evidence in the case.

“I don’t think there’s a woman in Ojai who won’t be relieved when the person who’s guilty of this is caught,” Shelley said. “All of us have been nervous about this.”