Scientist gets 14 years for sexual abuse

William French Anderson, among the world’s most acclaimed scientists, was sentenced Friday to 14 years in prison for sexually abusing the daughter of a researcher at his lab at USC.

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Michael E. Pastor said he considered the contributions the 70-year-old researcher, a pioneer in gene therapy, had made to science, as well as the many letters he received from the defendant’s colleagues -- including a Nobel laureate -- vouching for Anderson’s character.

“It is rare to be presented with such heartfelt, lengthy letters,” Pastor said.

But, in imposing what he described as a mid-term sentence, the judge said those who wrote did not know the details of Anderson’s crimes. “I wish they had heard the evidence,” Pastor said.

The judge said Anderson “had a game plan. He ensnared [the victim] to make her totally dependent on him emotionally and psychologically.”

Anderson made the girl “his protege, offering her the opportunity to achieve everything this country has to offer: fame, influence, financial success, success in academics, sports and life. What mother would not be thrilled beyond belief?” Pastor said.

As he spoke, the victim’s mother broke into tears, burying her face in a handkerchief. The young woman, who flew in from college in the Midwest, placed a comforting hand on her mother.

Now 19, the victim addressed the court in a wavering voice, recalling “pain that led me to cut my own body and contemplate suicide.” Her voice grew more forceful as she declared: “He has had second chances. He is well educated.... He could have stopped the first, the second or any of the times he molested me, but he didn’t.”

The Times generally does not identify sexual abuse victims.

Anderson, dressed in an open-collar shirt with a rumpled, double-breasted jacket, showed little emotion as he gazed straight at those who spoke for and against him, though he smiled warmly as he entered the courtroom. He occasionally glanced at his wife, Kathryn, an accomplished surgeon who attended his trial every day.

Blair Berk, one of Anderson’s lawyers, said his client would be targeted by inmates as a child molester, so a prison term would mean “either a death sentence or solitary confinement.”

Anderson had faced a maximum sentence of 18 years for his conviction on four counts of continuous sexual abuse and lewd acts toward a child younger than 14. Pastor also ordered him to pay $52,000 in restitution to the victim and her family to cover past therapy bills and $16,000 in fines to state restitution funds.

The victim said Anderson first abused her shortly after they met, when she was in the fifth grade. The girl’s mother, Anderson’s second-in-command at the laboratory, had asked him to spend time with the girl, because she had few friends and was acting up in school. Anderson agreed and said that with his help the girl might go on to his alma mater, Harvard University.

During the trial, the victim testified that he first touched her crotch as she playfully swung on a heavy punching bag at his San Marino house, where Anderson, an athlete himself, gave her karate lessons.

The abuse continued for five years, prosecutors said, though the conviction covered only three. Anderson had the girl undress for medical exams at his house, and when she was an adolescent had her undress to her underwear and lie on a towel on his bed, she said. He thrust himself on her until he ejaculated, she testified.

In high school, she reluctantly agreed to cooperate with police after a school counselor got her to confide she had been abused. Wearing a police wire, she faced down Anderson in 2004 outside the South Pasadena library.

In that recorded encounter, Anderson did not acknowledge molesting the girl but apologized generally and said that “something inside me was evil.” Then 67, Anderson told the girl, 17 at the time, “I will love you forever.”

He also sent her multiple e-mails begging to see her and one e-mail warning that he might kill himself. “For me, a powerful 9-millimeter bullet through the side of the head would be the way to go,” he wrote.

Pastor cited the e-mails as predatory behavior.

Before Anderson was accused in 2004 of molesting the girl, he was among the few U.S. scientists who achieved something close to celebrity status. He was featured in lengthy profiles in national magazines and newspapers, including this one.

In September 1990, Anderson and two colleagues implanted a healthy gene to correct a 4-year-old girl’s defective immune system. Whether the operation or later medical treatment saved her life is now in dispute. The media then, however, hailed Anderson as the man who bested nature, the closest thing to playing God.

But critics said Anderson took too much credit for others’ achievements. By 2003, his USC lab had lost most of its funding.

After he was charged with abuse in Los Angeles, a Maryland man said Anderson had molested him 20 years earlier. Anderson was charged with abusing the boy, but prosecutors, citing limitations of Maryland law, eventually dropped the case.

Anderson resigned his USC faculty post in September 2006.

He had come to the university in 1992 from the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md. He said he was following his wife, who had been made surgery chairwoman at Childrens Hospital Los Angeles. The Andersons said they chose not to have children so that they could devote themselves fully to medicine.

As he stood to leave the courtroom Friday, Anderson looked to his wife and pursed his lips as if to kiss her. She looked back at him, bright-eyed, and did the same.

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peter.hong@latimes.com