Sunny Image Yields to Darkness in O.C. Child-Abuse Case

He projected the image of success -- handsome, affable and smart, an outgoing man with a budding career, a beautiful new bride and a nice home in an idyllic Southern California suburb.

But some neighbors who knew David S. Hwang, 31, and his former girlfriend, Nora Contreras, in Texas recall him differently -- as a volatile man given to black moods and violent outbursts.

“He was the devil,” said Maria Contreras, a friend who is not related to Nora.

His former girlfriend “thought he was a good person and he wasn’t,” said another neighbor, Norma Garza. “That decision has affected her since.”

Authorities in Orange County and Laredo paint an even more disturbing picture, accusing Hwang of filming himself having sex with at least eight young girls -- including his 8-month-old daughter -- over the last decade.

Inside what investigators called a “little chest of horrors,” more than 100 videotapes -- some shot nearly a decade ago in Texas and others more recently in Orange County -- allegedly capture Hwang molesting girls, sometimes with the participation of his wife or, in earlier years, former girlfriend Nora Contreras.

Hwang, still bronzed from his honeymoon in the Bahamas and a summer of beach volleyball, is behind bars. So are his wife, Sheila M. Sikat, 23, and Nora Contreras, 29. All three have pleaded not guilty to charges that they filmed themselves having sex with children. Sikat’s lawyer has described his client as young and impressionable. Hwang’s lawyer, Mike Harkness, has not returned calls seeking comment. An attorney for Contreras could not be reached.

As prosecutors in Texas and California prepare to file more charges against Hwang, details about his past remain elusive. Even some of his closest family members, still stunned by the news, can’t fill in the gaps. But court records, and interviews with investigators, neighbors and former acquaintances show Hwang had troubles long before his arrest last week. And as far as anyone can tell, the paths lead back to Texas.

Born in Chicago, the younger son of Peter and Anna Hwang, David Hwang grew up in Houston before his parents separated. Then he moved with his mother to Phoenix, where he went to high school, before entering Texas A&M; University in College Station to study engineering.

In 1994, he was arrested for unlawfully carrying a weapon in Laredo, where his family had opened a restaurant, but he was never formally charged, court records show.

A year later, he was arrested at Texas A&M; for stealing two computers worth more than $3,000 from a student lounge. A stolen driver’s license, student IDs and credit cards were also reportedly found in his dorm room. He was given two years’ probation for the computer theft and expelled.

“He is still blocked from attending the university,” said Texas A&M; spokeswoman Cindy Lawson.

Faced with leaving College Station a few semesters shy of graduation, Hwang spent the next few years in nearby Laredo, a South Texas border city of 177,000. By that time, his father had remarried and opened a Chinese restaurant called Ming Dynasty along San Bernardo Street, a scruffy main thoroughfare that ends where Mexico begins.

The restaurant has seen better days, its burgundy paint fading and green tiles in disrepair. But Hwang’s father -- who could not be reached to discuss the charges against his son -- still runs the place the same hard-charging way he always has, according to former and current employees.

Juan Lira, a former employee of the restaurant, and others who lived near or worked with the family remember the younger Hwang, who often stood behind the cash register, as mild-mannered and hard-working. To them, he came across as a loyal son who was shy, soft-spoken and serious.

“He was helpful to his family,” Lira said. “We didn’t see anything that was unusual.”

One close relative who agreed to speak only on condition of anonymity said the family also saw him as a good man. “He was always patient ... loving, had a good sense of humor, liked sports, was very intelligent, hard-working, and very responsible,” the relative said. “I can’t understand how this could be the same person.”

Others saw a different side.

“On the outside, he seemed like a gentleman, but he wasn’t,” Garza said.

Garza lives in the same brick apartment complex as Nora Contreras, who was a waitress at Ming Dynasty when she met Hwang. Contreras and Hwang had a daughter together eight years ago, but never married.

Authorities allege that by this time Hwang had already started filming sexually graphic video of young girls. On Saturday, the Orange County Register reported that Texas prosecutors said in court records that the youngest alleged victim was his daughter, then 8 months old.

Hwang also married and divorced Alma Caballero while he was in Laredo, records show.

Hwang left Laredo about 1996, following his older brother, Daniel. Both lived for a while with their aunt and uncle in Laguna Niguel. Hwang landed a computer job two years later at Pacific Life, where his uncle was an executive. He and the woman he was dating at the time bought the home that he now owns in Rancho Santa Margarita.

That girlfriend bought a new home elsewhere in Orange County in July of this year. Hwang married Sikat that same month.

Hwang, who captained one of Pacific Life’s volleyball teams, met Sikat at the company. She worked in the marketing department. The couple invited about 100 guests to their Huntington Beach wedding and traveled to the Bahamas to celebrate. A photograph on a family member’s Web site shows the couple arm-in-arm on the beach at Corona del Mar.

But his life, outwardly sunny, changed dramatically when someone -- police won’t say who -- tipped off the Sheriff’s Department.

Last week, deputies seized more than 100 videotapes from the couple’s home in Rancho Santa Margarita. Investigators said they are still viewing the tapes to determine how many victims there might be. So far, authorities say, the ones they’ve seen show at least eight girls up to age 12. The children, deputies say, are shown being distracted with candy and videogames as Hwang molested them

Three of the alleged victims had been identified as of late last week. Investigators have not said how the couple had access to the children, citing privacy issues, the need to protect witnesses and their efforts to collect evidence. Neighbors said children were a regular presence at the couple’s home, arriving with suitcases and staying the weekend, and that Sikat once said she was taking care of friends’ children because they were preparing to have some of their own someday.

Prosecutors expect to file more charges against one or all three of the defendants as the investigation unfolds.

At the County Jail on Friday, Hwang politely declined to discuss the allegations. Dressed in an orange jumpsuit and neatly groomed, he stood for nearly 30 minutes with his back to a reporter, staring out a window, waiting to be led back to his cell.

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Times staff writers Mai Tran and H.G. Reza contributed to this report.