Deepa Bharath Darleen Savoji is still haunted...

Deepa Bharath

Darleen Savoji is still haunted by thoughts of James Lee Crummel.

Savoji, who worked her day job and picketed by night to get the

57-year-old convicted sex offender out of her Newport Crest

neighborhood five years ago, shudders at the thought of what might

have happened had her two young boys accepted Crummel’s invitation

and followed him into the condo he then shared with psychiatrist

Burnell Forgey.

Newport Crest, otherwise a quiet neighborhood, recoiled in a

frightened rage when Newport Beach police circulated fliers there,

warning residents about Crummel and calling him a “high-risk

offender” believed to have a greater risk of re-offending and to pose

a worse danger to the public.

Crummel’s whereabouts were made known to the community through

Megan’s Law, passed in California in 1996. The law is named after

Megan Kanka, a New Jersey girl who was raped and killed by a child

molester on parole who lived in her neighborhood.

Savoji’s sons, then 13 and 7, immediately identified the face on

the flier as the man who had invited them into his house a few days

before, she said.

“They were riding their BMX bikes and fell down in front of his

house,” she said. “[Crummel] came outside and asked them if he could

get them a Band-Aid. Then he told them: “Let’s go in, have a Coke and

watch BMX movies.”

But the boys used their better judgment and declined the offer,

Savoji said.

An Associated Press investigation earlier this month revealed that

more than 33,000 sex offenders have fallen off the radar, a number

larger than the state’s previous estimate that the whereabouts of a

third of California’s sex criminals are not known. Convicted sex

offenders are required to register with the police department in

their city of residence. Also, under state law, every month cities

get a disc from the Department of Justice with a complete list of

registered offenders.

KEEPING TRACK OF OFFENDERS

Newport Beach currently has 26 registered sex criminals and Costa

Mesa has 137. Neither city is home to a high-risk offender such as

Crummel, officials said. Local police officials also say they have

had no problems keeping track of such offenders.

Chris Maese, who also picketed outside Crummel’s house with Savoji

five years ago, said she was shocked to hear that a high-risk sex

offender was living in “a nice neighborhood.”

“It’s very scary for people like myself with young children,” she

said. “I was even more shocked we weren’t notified about it. I’m glad

we have Megan’s Law.”

But Savoji says the law, as any other, has loopholes.

“I believe that Megan’s Law has done a lot of good,” she says.

“But how many people actually go down to the police station and check

the information?”

Savoji wonders if police departments have enough manpower to hunt

down offenders who don’t report to them. She wonders how many are

slipping away without being noticed.

“Megan’s Law is a great resource,” she said. “But there’s always

going to be that person who’ll find a way around it.”

The solution, she says, is for parents to talk to their children

and educate them about the perils that lurk around them.

Crummel, the city’s first high-profile case involving Megan’s Law,

has been behind bars since 1997 when he was arrested on suspicion of

murdering Jamey Trotter, a 13-year-old Costa Mesa boy who vanished on

April 19, 1979, on his way to school. Last seen walking along Harbor

Boulevard, the blond-haired boy was reported missing and feared dead

when investigators could not solve the case.

Eleven years later, the boy’s charred skull and teeth were found

by Crummel near the Ortega Highway in Riverside County. At that time

Crummel was not a suspect in Trotter’s death. But now, it has left

officials perplexed about why the boy’s suspected killer would lead

them to his remains.

A HISTORY OF SUSPICION

The Trotter case was not the first time Crummel had been suspected

of murdering a young boy. He was arrested in connection with the 1967

murder of 9-year-old Frank Clawson in Arizona, but that case was

thrown out by a judge in 1982 because a key witness changed his

statement.

The disappearance of 9-year-old Jack Phillips in 1995 near Big

Bear Lake also led investigators to Crummel. Phillips has never been

found and Crummel was not even charged in that case, although

detectives interviewed him.

The former Newport Beach resident’s rap sheet dates back three

decades and unfurls a squalid history of child molestation. More

recently, Crummel was sentenced to 60 years to life for sexually

abusing a 16-year-old boy at his Newport Crest condo. His roommate,

Forgey, was convicted for molesting the 16-year-old and was in jail

for a few years.

Family members said Forgey died in November 2001 at Veteran’s

Hospital in San Bernardino of complications from pneumonia at age 83.

Last week, a trial date was set in Riverside County Superior Court

for the Trotter trial. It is scheduled for April 7, almost a year

late because some of the forensic evidence had to be tested further,

said prosecutor Bill Mitchell. Pretrial motions are expected to be

made on Tuesday.

Mitchell said he had requested additional DNA testing on Trotter’s

remains using newer techniques. When that was done, forensic

anthropologists suspected there were probably remains of two people.

“But it has now been determined that the bones belonged only to

Jamey Trotter and the other results occurred because of contamination

while handling the evidence,” Mitchell explained. That delayed the

trial by more than a year, he said.

Crummel is now in Riverside County jail awaiting trial. He has

pleaded not guilty to the alleged crime.

A PARENT’S BIGGEST FEAR

Justine Howard, a Newport Crest resident who was behind Savoji in

her crusade, said she is relieved to know that Crummel is still

behind bars.

“The biggest fear any parent has, the worst nightmare is that your

child will get kidnapped, raped and killed,” she said. “We were happy

to see him out of our neighborhood, happy to see him arrested. I’d

like to see him put away forever.”

Trotter’s older brother, John Trotter, who lives in Orange County

and his mother, Barbara Brogli, could not be reached for comment.

Brogli, who lived in Colorado at the time of Crummel’s arrest,

vowed to move to California and attend every day of the trial. She

has said she wants to confront him face to face.

John Trotter said right after Crummel’s arrest that he was “happy

as hell.”

“I’m happy for my family, I’m happy for all the families [Crummel]

has hurt,” he said. “If my brother’s death and all this coming to

light saves one kid from being abused, that means the world to me.”

* DEEPA BHARATH covers public safety and courts. She may be

reached at (949) 574-4226 or by e-mail at deepa.bharath@latimes.com.