Scout Leader Held on 19 Counts of Child Molestation

Carlos Gutierrez Abarca was a popular fixture around Troop 529, a Boy Scout father who for years volunteered for camp-outs and the stewpot of other activities that make a Scouting life.

But now the assistant troop leader from El Monte faces allegations that for nearly a decade he was sexually molesting some of the boys under his supervision. Prosecutors have charged Gutierrez with 19 felony counts--including continuous sexual abuse of a child, oral copulation and sodomy--stemming from a series of alleged molestations that go back to 1988.

Arcadia police said the allegations arose in January when a former Scout, who is now an adult, reported that Gutierrez, 44, had molested him repeatedly over eight years. That led investigators to find two other former troop members who said Gutierrez abused them--one on a single occasion in 1993 and the other over several years, said Police Lt. Bob Sanderson.

Gutierrez, a sketch artist with a son in the troop, was arrested Feb. 25 and is being held in Los Angeles County Jail. He has pleaded not guilty. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for April 22 in Santa Anita Municipal Court. Neither Gutierrez nor his attorney could be reached for comment.

The three alleged victims were 11 to 12 years old when the incidents allegedly began and continued in at least one case until last year, police said. Gutierrez was a parent volunteer in 1988 and later became a Scout leader, according to police.

Sanderson said Gutierrez sought to be alone with the boys during outings or while giving them a ride home. The ex-Scout who first came forward said he wanted to prevent abuse against others.

“We asked him, ‘Why did you wait so long?’ ” Sanderson said. “His response was, ‘I’m mature now. I’m grown up and I realize what he did to me.’ ”

Sanderson said one of the former Scouts reported the alleged abuse to Los Angeles County sheriff’s officials in 1993, but investigators lacked corroborating evidence to make a case then.

The recent allegations so stunned the people at Troop 529, which covers El Monte and part of Arcadia, that parents favored disbanding the group before a volunteer persuaded them that that would only make matters worse for the 12 Scouts. Parents and Scouts were told about the arrest--and briefed on the warning signs of molestation--during a meeting with police and a counselor last week.

“He was a likable guy. When it was revealed he had been arrested, everybody was in shock,” said Ron Schoenmehl, assistant Scout executive for the San Gabriel Valley Council. “There’s no classic profile of a pedophile. It’s not the guy in the raincoat.”

The local Boy Scout group opened membership lists to police seeking other possible victims. No others have stepped forward.

The allegations mark the latest molestation case involving a Scout leader in Southern California. Last year, a former Cub Scout leader in Orange County was convicted of molesting three boys he befriended through Scouting. In 1994, a Garden Grove man convicted of molesting two boys later admitted having sexual contact with more than 50 Boy Scouts while working as a chaplain at summer camps on Santa Catalina Island.

But Schoenmehl said such cases are extremely rare. And he said the Boy Scout group’s response to the latest instance highlights the seriousness with which the organization treats alleged misconduct by adult leaders.