Former youth minister convicted of molesting 4 girls

A former youth minister was convicted Wednesday of molesting four girls and possessing child pornography.

Todd Christian Hartman was found guilty of eight felony counts related to sexual assaults on four girls as well as one felony count of possession of child pornography. He is scheduled to be sentenced July 31.

The case against Hartman started with Newport Beach police in October 2014 when investigators were tipped off about child pornography on the defendant’s devices at his home, according to court records.

Hartman lived with his mother there at the time.

A computer in his room had more than 1,500 suspected child pornography and child erotica images and about 400 suspected child pornographic videos, according to prosecutors. Another hard drive had about 5,000 suspected child pornography images, and a thumb drive contained about 80 deleted video files with names associated with child porn, prosecutors said.

Hartman was indicted by federal prosecutors, who later dismissed the case against him when a detective failed to read the defendant his Miranda rights, prosecutors said.

Hartman was previously accused of molesting a 14-year-old girl and her 12-year-old friend Dec. 29 and Dec. 30, 2009, when they were at one of the alleged victims’ great-grandmother’s home in Fullerton, but the Orange County district attorney’s office declined to file a case at that time. The charges in Hartman’s trial this month included those same accusers.

When the federal case against Hartman was dropped and he was released from custody in January 2016 he told the father of two sisters he met through a youth ministry at Vineyard Church in Anaheim that the federal charges were dismissed and he planned to visit them, prompting one of the girls to have a “meltdown,” and tell her mother she was molested, Deputy Dist. Atty. Scott Wooldridge said.

“He was the guy who was part of the family,” Wooldridge said in his closing argument. “They invited him into their home routinely.”

In an email to the father, Hartman “shifted blame to the two victims,” Wooldridge said. The prosecutor also said the father was “being unreasonable” and that he “left out details in his confession for [the father’s] benefit. How twisted is that?”

The father noticed a “change in behavior” when his daughter was 9, which was when she was molested, Wooldridge said.

Hartman “had unbelievable access to her for years,” the prosecutor said.

Hartman also admitted molesting the girl on a phone call to her mother while a police investigator eavesdropped, Wooldridge said.

Hartman was a friend of the family of one of the victims in the Fullerton case, the prosecutor said. Hartman, who had been drinking, molested one of the girls despite her protests several times, Wooldridge said. She said it happened again the next evening, according to the prosecutor.

The girl’s friend accused Hartman of also molesting her despite her protests to stop, Wooldridge said.

Hartman’s attorney, Marji Kirkwood of the Orange County public defender’s office, implored jurors to consider each allegation separately and to avoid lumping them all together.

“This is not a home run on nine counts,” Kirkwood said.

The defense attorney said jurors could consider a lesser charge of sexual battery for one of the victims, and she argued against an accusation of sexually penetrating the girl.

Kirkwood conceded her client should be convicted of molesting the girl but said the more serious charge was not proved.

“You don’t have to be a victim who is lying to misremember what happened,” Kirkwood said.

Hartman denied during the covert call with police that he sexually penetrated the victim, Kirkwood said.

The defense attorney argued that the victim’s sister, who is seen in multiple photos sitting on the defendant’s lap, denied being molested in 2016 and again when interviewed by investigators in 2017.

Kirkwood also argued there was no evidence proving her client knew here was child pornography on his computers.