60 Years in Prison for Boys’ Molester

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 said was therapy.

The sentencing came after an emotional statement from one of Kenneth Teague’s victims, who was 9 years old 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. He said Teague molested him over a five-month period.

Teague, 43, met his two other victims while serving as Scout master 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 Fasel said the case is particularly disturbing because Teague used his position 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 therapy designed to help the boys learn how to open up and gain the trust of others.

Jurors, however, rejected that argument and said Friday that they were pleased with the 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 began to suspect Teague in 1995. Officials at Big Brother noticed that the 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 he 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 other children.

Police later seized 20 videotapes from Teague’s home and a storage unit showing him with boys in various sex acts. Jurors watched about 80 minutes of videotape during the weeklong trial.

Detectives said the molestations occurred at Teague’s Irvine home and other locations, including the homes of some Boy Scouts.

The 14-year-old boy who testified in court Friday said Teague had scarred him deeply.

“Emotionally, it pretty much damaged me,” he said. “I learned about sex way too early.”