Man Sentenced to 60 Years for Molesting Boys

Calling him “a parent’s worst nightmare,” an Orange County judge on Friday sentenced a former Irvine Boy Scout leader and Big Brother to 60 years in prison for molesting three boys in what the defendant claimed was a “form of therapy.”

The sentencing came after an emotional statement from one of Kenneth Teague’s victims, who was 9 at the time of the molestation. The boy, now 14, lashed out at Teague, saying, “He’s ruined my life,” and urging the judge to send Teague to prison for the rest of his life.

The boy, who lived in the county’s shelter for abused and neglected children, met Teague through the Big Brother program and was molested over a 5-month period. Teague, 43, met his two other victims while serving as Scoutmaster of an Irvine troop in the late 1980s and early ‘90s. A jury in May convicted him on 16 counts ranging from sodomy to oral copulation.

Judge Frank F. Fasel said the case was particularly disturbing because Teague used his position of trust to hurt boys he was supposed to be helping.

“I don’t think you will change for the better,” Fasel told Teague. “I think the only way to control you is incarceration for life.”

Teague represented himself at trial, insisting that his actions were actually “therapy” designed to help the boys learn how to open up and gain the trust of others.

However, jurors rejected the argument and said Friday they were pleased with the heavy punishment.

“What hurts the most is that he was a leader and that he hurt kids who needed his support most,” said K.C. Maran, a juror from Orange. “He twisted it all around for them.”

Authorities said they began to suspect Teague in 1995. Officials at Big Brother noticed that Teague, a former computer engineer, was meeting with a boy at the county shelter several times a week when organization rules allow for only one visit per week. The boy was the one who testified in court Friday.

Suspicious, the Big Brothers threw Teague out of the program. But the defendant then applied for a foster care license, prosecutors said, hoping to eventually take custody of the boy.

“He was a predator who was after this child. He called him the perfect boy,” said prosecutor Randy Payne. “He was relentless with this boy and wouldn’t take no for an answer.”

Teague was arrested two days after he received his license but before he took custody of the boy or any children. Police later seized 20 videotapes from his home and a storage unit showing him with other boys in various sex acts. About 80 minutes of the tape were played to jurors during the one-week trial. Detectives said the molestations occurred at his Irvine home as well as other locations including the homes of some Boy Scouts.

Teague has phoned radio talk shows in recent weeks to defend himself, telling listeners that the jury misunderstood his intentions.

“I earnestly attempted to explain to the jury that the acts of intimacy which I shared in with my friends were really no different in basic character than the intimate acts with persons over 18 years of age,” Teague stated in a 34-page report.

The victim who testified in court Friday said Teague has scarred him deeply.

“Emotional, it pretty much damaged me,” he told the court. “I learned about sex way too early.”