Maximum Term in 1960s Sex Case

Standing stooped before the sentencing judge, a 75-year-old retired schoolteacher and former Ventura County school board member apologized Thursday for molesting his children three decades ago and pleaded for leniency.

“I am very sorry if I caused any harm to my children,” Albert Rosen said in a gravelly voice, his balding head bowed. “I can’t explain it. But I am sorry.”

However, Rosen’s apologies came too late and his crime was too reprehensible to warrant any leniency, Superior Court Judge Charles McGrath said.

McGrath rejected Rosen’s plea for probation and ordered the Simi Valley man to serve one year to life in state prison for each of the nine molestation charges on which he was convicted earlier this year--the maximum sentence possible.

It is a sentence unlikely to be found in the current California Penal Code but that reflects the state of the law in 1966, when Rosen’s crimes were first committed.

Rosen, a longtime member of the Ventura County Board of Education, was arrested last year after his adult son, Ron Rosen, told authorities that his father had forced sex on him and a sibling between 1966 and 1970. The children were 9 and 6.

According to court documents, the son, now 45, had remembered the assaults for years but assumed nothing could be done because they occurred so long ago.

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 alleged crime must constitute “substantial sexual conduct” and be independently corroborated by other evidence. The law also requires that the victim must have been under 18 at the time of the alleged offense and that charges must be filed within one year of the victim’s reporting the crime.

Ron Rosen filed a complaint in April 2000 after learning of the law change, and that led to charges concerning the second child. The charges involving Ron Rosen were later dismissed, but the counts involving his sibling remained.

In June, Albert Rosen waived a jury trial and a month later was convicted on all nine counts.

At Thursday’s sentencing hearing, Ron Rosen urged McGrath to send his father to prison for stealing his childhood and leaving emotional scars that may never heal.

Senior Deputy Dist. Atty. Ernesto Acosta told the judge that instead of creating a safe environment for his children, Albert Rosen sexually abused them and kept them silent with fear.

“The defendant hijacked their childhood,” the prosecutor said. “He deserves to spend the rest of his years in the state prison system.”

But Oxnard defense attorney Joseph O’Neill argued that Albert Rosen “has led an exemplary life” and should be spared prison.

O’Neill said Rosen has no previous criminal history and has suffered from the allegations. Albert Rosen was forced to resign from the school board after his conviction. The retired high school teacher had served for nearly a dozen years.

“His whole life has been shattered,” O’Neill said, adding that due to age and poor health, sending his client to state prison “would be a death sentence.”

However, McGrath was not persuaded. He handed down the maximum sentence, then rejected a plea by the defense to allow Rosen to remain free on bail pending an appeal.

“This court denies bail,” McGrath said. “I find he is a danger to the community.”

After the judge stepped down from the bench, Rosen, a short man with rounded shoulders, huddled with his lawyers at the counsel table. He then stood up slowly and was led to a holding cell to await transport to state prison.

Outside the courtroom, Acosta said he expects that Rosen, who will be eligible for parole in a year, will file an appeal challenging the state law that allows certain cases to be filed well after the statute of limitations has expired. But he said he doubts it will go far.

The California Supreme Court has upheld the law in question.