Ex-Neighbor Admits He Molested Girl

A Newhall man on Tuesday admitted molesting a 7-year-old girl after breaking into her family’s home, ending a convoluted, widely publicized case in which the child’s own parents were briefly investigated by county social workers and laid a trap for the intruder to vindicate themselves.

During a brief hearing in Van Nuys Superior Court, David Afton Foster, 23, a former neighbor of the Blair family, pleaded guilty to one count each of burglary and a lewd act with a child under the age of 14. Judge Ronald S. Coen immediately sentenced him to 12 years in state prison.

The terms of Foster’s plea enabled him to avoid a possible 25-years-to-life sentence, the maximum penalty had he gone to trial and been convicted of the original three charges he faced, officials said.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Cynthia Meagher-Walker acknowledged it was difficult to see the defendant receive less prison time but said it spared the victim the pain of reliving the incident.

“This decision wasn’t arrived at easily,” said Meagher-Walker. “It had to be weighed against the potential emotional damage to an 8-year-old girl by putting her on the stand. In that context it was the right thing to do. The family thought it was the right thing to do.”

The crime occurred Aug. 9 of last year when a man with long brown hair, a mustache and a baseball cap on backward broke into the bedroom of the Blairs’ youngest daughter and molested her while the rest of the family slept in their Santa Clarita Valley home.

But the case took an especially strange turn when, during the ensuing Sheriff’s Department investigation, one of the Blairs’ seven children told of having had a nightmare in which a naked intruder in her bedroom could have been her father.

That led to a separate investigation by the county Department of Children’s Services, which temporarily seized custody of the family’s five youngest children (the two oldest were at college).

In an effort to vindicate themselves, Warner and Debbie Blair set a trap for the molester. They began leaving the upstairs bedroom window open, hoping to tempt the intruder. They said they rigged a trip wire in a hallway and prepared a camera to document whatever happened.

Late on Sept. 6, 1996, they heard someone in the house. As the intruder retreated, Warner Blair chased and tackled him in the family’s backyard. Debbie Blair photographed the capture, and her screams drew neighbors from their homes.

Debbie Blair said Tuesday her husband should have been treated like a hero instead of a possible criminal.

“I tried to do the right thing by filing a police report,” Debbie Blair said, referring to reporting the attack against her daughter. “But I never knew it would backfire and they would be accusing my husband and tearing my family apart.”

Blair said the case has been closed by child welfare authorities but that the experience has made her wary.

“After my husband caught the molester, no one ever commended him for his heroic action. It only goes to show you should beware of where you place your trust.”