Carney Acquitted on 4 Counts

In a repudiation of the girls who accused Kevin Wright Carney of molesting them, a jury Thursday found the former Palmdale councilman not guilty on four charges and deadlocked 11 to 1 for acquittal on 12 others.

Carney, 49, a former sheriff’s sergeant who once investigated child abuse cases, looked tired and smiled weakly outside the courtroom.

“No one won here today. There are no winners,” said Carney, surrounded by his family. “It’s been a very, very long year.”

Carney’s lawyer, Milton Grimes, said: “I hope this tells the public and the district attorney’s office to thoroughly investigate before they file charges.”

Carney’s hometown had closely followed the three-week trial, and several observers said they were both shocked and relieved by the jury’s conclusions.

“We’re a family-oriented community here in the Antelope Valley, and the trial put the entire community into a negative spotlight for one full year,” said Bill Olenick, president of the Antelope Valley Union High School District Board of Directors, on which Carney served for four years before his election to the Palmdale City Council.

Olenick said he hoped the jury’s overwhelming support for acquittal will persuade officials to dismiss the charges on which the panel deadlocked.

“It’s a relief that it appears to be over, and it’s time for people to move on.” he said.

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge James C. Chalfant declared a mistrial on the remaining 12 counts, which range from lewd acts to unlawful intercourse.

Deputy Dist. Attys. Robert Dver and Steve Katz declined to comment. A decision on whether prosecutors will retry the case will be made in the next few days, said Sandi Gibbons, spokeswoman for the district attorney’s office.

The case against Carney came down to the accusers’ credibility, and jurors said Thursday that only one of them believed the girls.

Four girls testified that Carney molested them.

Jurors acquitted him of lewd acts involving one girl, now 11, who lived in Carney’s Palmdale neighborhood and said he improperly touched her when she went to his house.

They also found him not guilty of molesting another girl, now a teenager, who alleged that he improperly touched her after she climbed into his sleeping bag during a camping trip.

The jury deadlocked on lewd act charges involving another neighborhood girl, now 10, as well as the most serious allegations involving a girl now 15. That girl, for whom Carney had served as a father figure, testified that he molested her repeatedly over eight years and raped her in his truck last October.

The 15-year-old “didn’t know how she got raped,” said juror Barbara Brown, a 54-year-old network operations technician who lives in Ladera Heights. “She couldn’t remember if he was on top or on the side.”

The girl suffered physical injuries that prosecutors argued had been caused by the assault. But jurors said they believed that a teenage boy, who testified that he had sexual relations with the girl a few days before the alleged rape, had caused the injuries.

Most of the jurors believed Carney, who testified on his own behalf that nothing untoward had occurred.

“He gave a consistent story,” said the jury foreman, Andre Khachatourians, a 41-year-old engineer from La Crescenta.

Javier Franco, a 30-year-old UPS driver from Montebello, said he and his fellow jurors “didn’t believe the prosecution witnesses at all.”

The one dissenting juror, 33-year-old Athena Blakely, said the “innocent look in [the girls’] eyes” and their testimony convinced her that Carney is guilty of molesting two of them.

She also said she believed that the fibers from Carney’s truck found in one girl’s pants corroborated the rape allegation.

Olenick said the case of the former councilman, who was elected in November 1999 a few days after his arrest and resigned two months later, “has been very difficult for all of us up here as a community.”

Michele Lejeune, a longtime Carney supporter and his former campaign treasurer, applauded the jury’s action.

“I’ve been hoping from the very beginning [for acquittal] and I’m thrilled,” she said. “I am feeling a huge sign of relief for his family and for his friends and for everyone who has been praying and supporting him.”

Some residents living near the Carney home expressed a different opinion.

“I believe they should retry him,” Trish Corrigan said, “because I will not feel comfortable in my neighborhood until I know for sure, totally know for sure, about a crime this serious where children are involved.”