Ex-Assemblyman Found Guilty of Sex With Underage Girl

Former Assemblyman Tom Connolly, driven from office in 1994 by revelations about his checkered past, was convicted Monday of having sex with an underage girl in October 1995.

Connolly, 51, was stoic when a Superior Court jury returned its guilty verdict on two felony charges and two misdemeanor counts after deliberating for two hours. He faces five years behind bars and could lose his license to practice law, said Deputy Atty. Gen. Lora Fox Martin. “Justice was served,” Martin said.

The girl, who was 14 at the time of the incident, testified that Connolly picked her up on the street in National City where she was homeless and working as a prostitute. She said she engaged in oral sex and other intimate contact with Connolly after he rented her a motel room.

Connolly testified that he met the girl at a restaurant and agreed to rent a room for her because she spun a hard-luck story.

“I honestly believed she had been beaten up and needed a place to stay until her family could pick her up,” he told jurors.

Connolly insisted that he stayed in the motel room for only 10 minutes and that no sex occurred. At the time, he was working as a deputy public defender in the juvenile division.

“Basically he was lying,” jury forewoman Lynn Meyer said of Connolly. “He was supposed to be helping children and to get a motel room and not report it to authorities was unbelievable.”

Later the girl became a client of the public defender’s office and Connolly was assigned to be her lawyer. Connolly contended that she was seeking retribution because he had urged her to turn in her boyfriend for hitting her.

During the trial, prosecutors called an adult prostitute to testify that Connolly had a desire for sex with minors. The woman testified that Connolly paid her 10 years ago to wear girlish clothes while they had oral sex. Connolly denied her story.

Connolly was convicted of having oral sex with a minor, contributing to the delinquency of a minor, soliciting prostitution and committing a lewd act with a minor.

He was jailed immediately after the conviction. A bail hearing will be held later this week.

Connolly plans to appeal, said his lawyer, Herbert Weston.

Connolly, a Vietnam veteran and conservative Democrat, served a single term in the Assembly representing a district in eastern San Diego County. He was defeated in 1994 after voters learned of his past problems, including cocaine addiction, bankruptcy, multiple marriages and a history of failing to pay child support.

In 1995, the Assembly agreed to pay $100,000 each to two former staff members in Connolly’s district office in Lemon Grove who alleged that Connolly had harassed them with sexual innuendoes and unwanted attention. But a San Diego civil jury this year rejected a case by a third staffer who made similar allegations.

After being defeated for reelection in 1994, Connolly returned to the practice of law. He also became a part-time radio talk show host but lost that job after being indicted on the sex charges.

Times correspondent Paul Levikow contributed to this report.