Molestation Case Against Mayor Beverage Dismissed

Yorba Linda Mayor Michael Beverage was acquitted by a Municipal Court judge Monday of charges that he molested his teen-aged stepson.

After the prosecution had presented its case, North Orange County Municipal Judge Robert B. Hutson granted a defense motion that Beverage be acquitted of the misdemeanor charge because his guilt had not been established beyond a reasonable doubt.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Mathew Vallance was unavailable for comment.

“The bottom line is that it was a fabrication, and (the accuser’s) testimony was not believable,” said Jeffrey Friedman, Beverage’s attorney.

The defense lawyer contended that Beverage’s stepson, now 18, had fabricated several molestation incidents because he was angry at his stepfather over disciplinary actions and his refusal to buy him a car.

Because the judge granted his motion, Friedman did not call any witnesses, although he said he had planned to call five people to the stand--as well as several character witnesses--if necessary. The alleged victim and a Brea police officer testified for the prosecution in the six-day trial.

“I would be lying if I told you that it hasn’t taken a heavy toll on me both financially and emotionally,” Beverage said from his Yorba Linda home after the ruling. “But if you believe in yourself, you don’t give up.”

Beverage, a first-term councilman, will run for reelection in November. The 38-year-old man was charged in April 1985 with seven counts of molestation, but six of those were dismissed before trial.

Vallance had said before the trial that felony charges were not filed because the stepson was older than 14 at the time of the alleged molestation.

The teen-ager had lived with his mother and Beverage in Yorba Linda since the couple married 12 years ago. But Beverage, the youth said, asked him to go live with his natural father in Northern California while he was in the seventh and eighth grades.

He later returned to live with Beverage and his mother for his freshman and sophomore years in high school--as well as during the first semester of his junior year. The teen-ager now lives with relatives in Walnut, Calif.