Jury Hears 2 Views of Ex-Lawman in Molestation Case

He may have been a pillar of his community. But Kevin Wright Carney, the former Palmdale city councilman, former school board president and former sheriff’s sergeant had a hidden, more insidious side to him, prosecutors contended Tuesday.

“The man is a child molester,” said Deputy Dist. Atty. Steve Katz, in closing arguments in Carney’s trial in a downtown courtroom on multiple charges of child molestation. He asked jurors to confront the difficult “realization that a man, a grown man, could get sexual satisfaction from the body of a child.”

Carney’s defense attorney, Milton Grimes, told jurors his client was a man of “good moral character” and that the four children who testified that he molested them were liars.

Looking over the jury of five women and seven men and then glancing over at Carney’s wife, daughter, two sons, brother and son-in-law in the courtroom audience, Grimes said: “I want you to say, Kevin Carney, go home with your family. You’re a free man.”

Carney, 49, is charged with 16 counts of sex offenses involving children, ranging from continuous sexual abuse to lewd conduct to unlawful intercourse. He could spend the rest of his life in prison if convicted.

During the trial, four girls testified that Carney had molested them. The allegations of two of the victims, now age 10 and 11, first arose in 1997 when Carney was campaigning for mayor of Palmdale, an election he lost. The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department investigated the matter, and charges were not filed until 1999 when another girl, now 15, told authorities a few days before a City Council election in which Carney was a candidate that Carney had molested her repeatedly over an eight year period, from inappropriate touching to rape. Carney has resigned from his post.

On Tuesday, the prosecution argued that evidence of Carney’s guilt was overwhelming.

One victim, a girl now 15, had a complicated relationship with Carney, who was like a father to her, Katz said. Carney drove her to and from school, bought her things, treated her to ice cream and took her to see movies. But he also molested her, Katz said.

The girl told no one about the abuse at first because she felt conflicted, Katz said. “She loved this man, because this man was good for her, notwithstanding the molestations.”

Carney eventually raped the girl in his truck on Oct. 28 last year, Katz said. Evidence that corroborate the 15-year-old’s account, Katz said, included fibers found in her pants that came from Carney’s truck’s carpeting, and physical injuries indicating she had been raped.

Another girl testified she was molested once when she climbed into Carney’s sleeping bag during a camping trip. Two girls living in Carney’s Palmdale neighborhood told jurors that Carney molested them while they were in his house playing with his pet turtles.

But the children’s allegations are full of inconsistencies, Grimes contended.

The two neighbor children provided contradictory accounts of their alleged molestations, according to Carney’s defense. One girl said she was alone while the other said the two were together.

As for the girl from the camping trip, Grimes argued that Carney, who in the past has weighed more than 300 pounds, could not have done what she alleged. “I don’t think a sleeping bag . . . gives you that liberty,” Grimes said.

The 15-year-old’s story had contradictory details from the time she reported the crime to when she testified, Grimes said. He contended that her physical injuries were caused by a teenage boy, who testified at the trial that he and the girl had sexual relations a few days before the alleged rape.

The girl “ain’t no 14-year-old mama’s innocent,” said Grimes, referring to her age at the time of the alleged rape. “This is a case of credibility. Whom do you believe?”