Rape Case Against Teen to Proceed

The trial of a Newbury Park teenager charged with a series of rapes will not be affected by the work of one of the case’s lead investigators, who has come under scrutiny for errors made in other cases, prosecutors said Monday.

During a preliminary hearing in January for Chad Schmidt, 19, testimony by one of five rape victims conflicted with testimony given by Sheriff’s Det. Kent Adlof.

Although Adlof’s work as a sex crimes investigator has come under question because of mistakes he made in at least two other cases, prosecutor Lisa Frawley said it would have little effect on the case against Schmidt.

Schmidt’s attorney, Deputy Public Defender Robert Willey, could not be reached for comment Monday.

Members of the Ventura County Defense Bar were alerted in late March by Dist. Atty. Michael D. Bradbury that the cases handled by Adlof contained errors and were either dismissed or not filed. And defense attorneys in at least two other cases are also contending that Adlof made mistakes while investigating allegations against their clients.

In Schmidt’s preliminary hearing, a woman who testified that she had been assaulted said she had told Adlof that she had been knocked down during the attack and therefore could not judge how tall the attacker was, according to a district attorney’s memorandum.

But Adlof said that the woman told him she had remained standing. After reviewing a tape-recording of Adlof’s interview of the woman, another investigator found that the question of whether the victim had been knocked to the ground was never discussed.

Because all the interviews with the rape victims were tape-recorded, any discrepancies in what was said between Adlof and the victims could be cleared up, Frawley said.

“I’m going to have all the tapes transcribed so that as far as the trial is concerned it will be abundantly clear from the transcripts what was actually said,” Frawley said.

Meanwhile, Schmidt’s trial was postponed Monday until June 1 because of scheduling problems for attorneys in the case.

Although Schmidt is suspected of committing the crimes in 1996, when he was 17, he will be tried as an adult, in part because of the seriousness of the charges. He faces 21 counts of charges that include rape, sexual assault and battery.