2 Charged in Videotaped Molestations

A Rancho Santa Margarita man was being held on 21 counts of child molestation Monday after authorities said they discovered a bedroom collection of more than 100 videotapes, some depicting the man engaged in sex acts with children as young as 3 -- what one deputy called a “little chest of horrors.”

One of the tapes also depicted scenes of sexual torture of a woman, Orange County sheriff’s deputies said, although no charges had been filed in that incident.

Investigators said they have so far viewed nine of the tapes, which they believe were filmed over two years, beginning Sept. 5, 2000. They couldn’t say how many women and girls might ultimately be depicted, but that the tapes they have seen appeared homemade. Most of the videos seem to have been shot in a home, not a warehouse or studio, an investigator said.

Acting on an anonymous tip, sheriff’s deputies on Wednesday raided the couple’s home, a two-story Spanish-style home off Antonio Parkway near Arroyo Vista Park. Inside the bedroom they found a green wooden chest of tapes.

Authorities said that most of the images were of David Shouthy Hwang, 31, though some involved Hwang, his wife and a child. Authorities said the couple have no children.

Hwang was charged Friday with child molestation and an additional count of recording minors engaged in sex acts. His wife of only a few weeks, Sheila Marie Sikat, 23, was charged with four counts of child molestation and one count of recording minors engaged in sex acts.

Their attorney, Mike Harkness, could not be reached for comment.

Sheriff’s spokesman Jim Amormino said investigators are seeking the public’s assistance: “We’re asking for anyone who knows them -- baby-sitters, parents in the area, anyone.

“We’re trying to figure out how they gained access to those kids. Is it through a relative? The neighborhood kids? We don’t know who the victims are.”

Hwang was being held without bail in Orange County Jail, and Sikat was released Saturday after posting $150,000 bond. Amormino said Sikat was charged with fewer crimes because investigators were still determining the extent of her alleged involvement.

“They do know that it appears that he’s the main suspect,” Amormino said.

Investigators are trying to determine whether some of the other presumed victims live outside California. Hwang lived in Laredo, Texas, before moving to Orange County five years ago.

The charges were based on the contents of a single tape allegedly made about Sept. 5, 2002, in Orange County, in which Sikat allegedly filmed sex acts of Hwang and a girl who appeared to be 5 or 6, Orange County Deputy Dist. Atty. Denise Alexander said. More charges could be filed based on the contents of other tapes, she said.

“I viewed one of the tapes, and every time I saw an act I filed a count,” Alexander said. Each act included in the charges involved vaginal penetration, according to court records.

Amormino said investigators confiscated photographs of young girls taken as they were apparently being molested, as well as video and film equipment they allegedly found inside the couple’s home.

Sheriff’s investigators do not believe the couple were distributing the films.

“We’re still in the early stages of our investigation, but detectives think this was for his own use,” Amormino said.

The couple work at Pacific Life Insurance Co. in Newport Beach. Milda Goodman, an assistant vice president for advertising and public relations, said the two have been placed on leave pending the outcome of their criminal case.

“The allegations are shocking and horrific,” Goodman said. “We find it extremely disturbing to hear about this is our own community.”

Goodman said several employees were upset about the arrests.

She said the company will offer support services and counseling to employees who want it.

Neighbors said Hwang, who moved in about four years ago, appeared to rent out rooms in the house -- as many as 30 tenants over that period. And children were also a regular presence.

One neighbor, who asked not to be identified out of fear of possible retaliation, said Sikat once told him she was taking care of friends’ children because they were preparing to have children of their own.

“I see kids coming over with suitcases and staying through the weekend,” the neighbor said. “They were very unsocial and hardly ever mixed with the rest of the neighbors. It did not seem right. There were too many people coming and going out of the house. This is a family neighborhood.... They never opened the blinds. They seemed like hermits.”

If the charges against Hwang are proved, the case would fall within what experts said are fairly common guidelines for child molesters.

“Dozens of victims ... with one suspect is not unusual -- it’s rather typical,” said Ernie Allen, president of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, based in Alexandria, Va. “There are hundreds, perhaps even thousands, of suspects like that.... A lot of them are married.”

Allen said most produce child pornography solely for their own use, although there is a black market for selling and trading the material, including over the Internet.

Amormino said authorities waited five days before releasing details of the arrest because of the complexity of the case.

“I think [investigators] wanted to view the tapes ... which is a time-consuming process,” Amormino said, adding that deputies were scouring the tapes for details about where they were filmed and clues as to the children’s identities.

Most of the victims were Asian, and investigators are not looking for other adult suspects, he said.

Among the videotapes detectives found one of a woman being sexually tortured, Amormino said.

“They’re home videos, and it’s unusual that a suspect would videotape such hideous crimes and it’s also unusual to videotape a torture,” he said.

“This is not one of those sadomasochistic videos, but according to investigators, it includes substantial sexual torture.”

If they are proved to be legitimate, the videotapes could be powerful pieces of evidence, according to Laurie Levenson, a Loyola Law School professor and former federal prosecutor: “A picture tells a thousand words, and this is the kind of picture you would never want a jury to see. That may be all the evidence jurors ever need to see.”

Levenson said defense lawyers will often challenge the admissibility of video evidence before trial. “The questions are: Who made the tapes and how were they obtained? Was there a warrant or wasn’t there a warrant?”

Anyone with information about the case is urged to call the Sheriff Department’s sex crimes unit at (714) 647-7419, or after hours at (714) 628-7170.

Times staff writers Eric Malnic, Scott Martelle, Jennifer Mena, Dave McKibben, Monte Morin, Stuart Pfeifer, H.G. Reza and Dan Weikel contributed to this report.