Other Suspects Added to Child Sex Abuse Probe

As many as three former child care workers at Faith Chapel in Spring Valley are suspected of molesting and abusing preschoolers over a 15-month period ending in August, 1989, a San Diego County prosecutor said Tuesday.

Speaking after the arraignment of Dale Anthony Akiki, a former church volunteer who was indicted last week on 50 felony counts of child molestation and related charges, Deputy Dist. Atty. Mary Avery said two other former child care workers are being investigated.

Akiki, who pleaded not guilty Tuesday, was acquainted with the other two suspects, one a volunteer and one a church employee, Avery said.

“The perpetrators were certainly known to each other,” she said, adding that, while her office has not alleged a conspiracy, she believes all three suspects knew the extent of the molestation. More charges may be brought against Akiki, she said, who is the primary suspect.

Akiki, a 33-year-old La Mesa man, is accused of molesting 10 boys and girls between the ages of 2 and 5. Among the charges he faces are child molestation, child abuse, rape with a foreign object, kidnaping and inflicting corporal injuries on a child.

According to the 13-page indictment, which a grand jury returned after hearing live televised testimony from seven of the children, Akiki abused them sexually and physically, at times using a bottle top, a toy, a glass, a stick and a needle.

A slight man, Akiki limped slightly as he was escorted into the courtroom Tuesday. His lawyer, Thomas Malowney, said Akiki suffers from a club foot, a webbed neck and hydrocephalus--or water on the brain--which has caused his head to grow larger than usual.

Malowney said he believes Akiki may be falsely accused in part because of his handicaps.

“He walks funny. He looks odd. And that might cause a child to be uncomfortable to look at him,” Malowney said, suggesting that the children might have been abused by someone else, but then “done a transference” to Akiki because of his “memorable” appearance.

“It’s like in ‘To Kill a Mockingbird.’ When something bad happened, it was always Boo Radley,” he said, referring to the novel by Harper Lee. “I’m not saying something bad didn’t happen to them. It’s just, by whom?”

When told of Malowney’s theories about Akiki’s appearance, Avery said: “Do you mean his scary appearance might make these children make up these allegations? I feel when the facts come out in this case, that will not be an issue.”

Malowney also said that according to Akiki’s mother, Kay Booth, he has an IQ of 79. Most people have IQs between 85 and 115. Mentally retarded people have IQs of less than 70.

“He’s plugging along, but he’s not to be mistaken for a Phi Beta Kappa,” Malowney said, adding that his client is “bewildered” by the charges against him. “He is the type of person that says, ‘If I don’t rip tags off of mattresses and don’t jaywalk and do the right thing, I get by in life.’ The man hasn’t got a malice bone in his body.”

Eight years ago, Akiki was hired as a computer assistant at the Naval Supply Center downtown under a program to hire the handicapped, according to Mary Markovinovic, a public affairs officer.

Since then, Markovinovic said, he has been an “outstanding” employee who rarely takes sick leave and is popular with his co-workers and with customers.

“He’s a very personable person,” she said, saying his arrest has surprised colleagues. “Everybody was pretty shocked when they heard it on the news. We’ve gotten a lot of people calling each other back and forth. They’re concerned about him.”

Avery said part of the reason for her lengthy, 1 1/2-year investigation is that she did not want to rush the children, some of whom were reluctant to speak about their experiences because Akiki had allegedly threatened them.

“The children have set the pace of this investigation,” she said. “We have given the children ample time to work with their therapists and to disclose (the abuse) in a manner that we thought would be more authentic and one in which they were not being forced to answer questions prior to their feeling ready and safe.”

She shied away from comparisons between this case and the infamous McMartin Pre-School molestation case, which involved 41 children, dragged on for six years and ultimately resulted in no convictions.

“We have the benefit of knowing from other cases where there were multiple victims and multiple perpetrators that in too many of them, the cases were put into the system too soon, without an adequate investigation,” she said. “We have attempted to do a very extensive investigation in this case before the case was put into the system.”

Superior Court Judge Jesus Rodriguez set Akiki’s trial for June 28. A bail hearing is scheduled for next week.