1 Case Against Gene Expert Tossed

A renowned San Marino geneticist charged with molesting the daughter of a colleague at USC won’t have to defend allegations that he abused a boy in Maryland, a prosecutor said Wednesday.

The Maryland case against William French Anderson was dismissed because under that state’s law, prosecutors were not permitted to introduce a recorded phone call between the scientist and the boy, said Douglas F. Gansler, state’s attorney for Montgomery County, Md.

Unlike California, which allows prosecutors to bolster sex-crime cases with lurid stories from a defendant’s past, Maryland does not allow evidence of similar allegations to be presented in sex cases. Gansler said Anderson discussed both the Maryland case and the Los Angeles County case during the phone call.

“Unfortunately, the incriminating statements of the defendant are intertwined with references to the California case,” wrote Gansler in court papers.

“We’d likely have to redact those portions and it would be nonsensical, “ he said in an interview.

Anderson, 68, a world-class martial arts expert, is accused of molesting a girl between 1997 and 2001 during karate lessons at his San Marino home. The girl was 10 in 1997. The Maryland accuser said Anderson molested him, starting when he was 12, during martial arts lessons from 1983 to 1985.

Anderson’s attorney, Paul Kemp, accused Maryland prosecutors of filing a sham case in order to smear his client’s reputation, then abandoning it less than a week before trial.

“They never had enough evidence to proceed here. The tapes didn’t show he did anything. There was no admission,” he said. “Where does [Anderson] go to get his reputation back?.... He is one of the most reputable scientists.”

Gansler, however, said “Maryland law is absurd when it comes to these cases. California law is far more favorable and allows prosecutors to bring in multiple victims so a victim doesn’t have to testify alone.” The California law was enacted in the late 1990s, in part because of abuse allegations against pop star Michael Jackson, who was acquitted earlier this year of molesting a boy. Gansler said the Maryland accuser and the alleged victim in another uncharged case could testify in the California case.

In Los Angeles County, Anderson was indicted in January on one count of continuous sexual abuse of a child under 14 and five counts of a lewd act upon a child. Two of those counts have been dismissed. Anderson has pleaded not guilty.

After the indictment, Anderson e-mailed friends at USC, saying, “I have not done the things I am charged with.”

In the California case, sheriff’s detectives also directed the accuser to conduct a taped conversation with Anderson.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Cathryn Brougham said she expects the California case to begin no earlier than January. The next scheduled court date is Oct. 12.

Anderson was dubbed the father of gene therapy after a team he led in 1990 cured a hereditary disease of the immune system in a 4-year-old girl. The child was infused with a missing gene and with white cells that had been removed from her blood. It was the first time that gene therapy was successful in a human being.