School Official Fights Molestation Case

A Ventura County school board member accused of molesting two children more than 30 years ago asked a court on Wednesday to dismiss the case as too old.

Albert Rosen, a 74-year-old Simi Valley resident, filed court papers challenging the constitutionality of a state law that permits prosecution of certain sex crimes after the statute of limitations has expired.

“I think we are on solid ground,” said Robert Sandbach, Rosen’s attorney. “It is a violation of someone’s rights to have the state assure them it’s not going to prosecute and turn around and change the rules of the game.”

Rosen is charged with four counts of lewd conduct upon a child for allegedly forcing a 9-year-old boy and a 6-year-old girl to engage in sexual conduct with him between 1966 and 1970.

A criminal complaint further alleges that those crimes, if proved, constitute serious felonies punishable by eight years in state prison.

According to court documents, the man Rosen is accused of molesting has remembered the assaults for years, but assumed nothing could be done because they occurred so long ago.

An October 1981 letter written by Los Angeles psychotherapist Susan Forward said the man had suffered “serious psychological damage” as a result of the childhood assaults.

Sandbach said a tipster called prosecutors with the molestation allegations 11 years ago after Rosen, a retired schoolteacher, was elected to the Ventura County Board of Education.

At the time, Rosen was assured by prosecutors that they could not bring criminal charges against him because the six-year statute of limitation for lewd conduct with a child had expired, Sandbach said.

But in 1994, California lawmakers amended the penal code to allow charges to be filed in certain sex assault cases regardless of when the alleged conduct occurred.

The law requires that the victim was under age 18 at the time of the alleged offense. The charges must be filed within one year of the victim’s reporting the crime.

And the alleged crimes must constitute “substantial sexual conduct” and be independently corroborated by other evidence.

The man who says he was molested filed a complaint in April 2000, after learning of the law change. This led to charges concerning a second alleged victim.

Among other points, the defense says the man told Los Angeles police in 1997 that he was molested as a child, which would mean the one-year reporting provision outlined in the 1994 law had expired.

“No one has really seen a factual scenario quite like this,” Sandbach said.

But Deputy Dist. Atty. Anthony Wold said the California Supreme Court has already upheld the constitutionality of the 1994 law. Wold said Rosen’s challenge is typical in child molestation cases.

“Our position is they certainly have a right to ask the court to rule on the constitutionality,” Wold said. “[But] the Supreme Court decided this issue in 1999.”

Sandbach contends the legal issue is far from resolved. He cited a federal case in which he said the U.S. Supreme Court offered a different view on such laws.

Rosen’s request to dismiss the charges is scheduled for argument Sept. 12 in Ventura County Superior Court. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for Sept. 14.

Rosen is free on $50,000 bail. He remains on the school board.