Ruling may mean D.A. drops case

Deepa Bharath

A Supreme Court decision on Thursday to strike down a California law

that allows prosecution of old sex crimes may force the Orange County

district attorney’s office to drop its case against a former pastor

of a Costa Mesa church accused of molesting a local boy about 25

years ago.

In a 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court ruled that the government

cannot retroactively erase statutes of limitations, a defeat for

prosecutors trying to pursue people accused of sex abuse, officials

said. The law was challenged by Marion Stogner, a 72-year-old man

accused of molesting his daughters when they were children.

Stogner is among hundreds of people charged under a 1994

California law that changed the statute of limitations for some sex

offenses.

The decision is “frustrating and disappointing” to prosecutors,

said Assistant Dist. Atty. Rosanne Froeberg, who supervises the

district attorney’s sexual assault unit.

“But we have to be respectful of the Supreme Court’s decision,”

she said.

Froeberg said her office is double-checking, pulling out old files

and reviewing cases to find out if any such accused offenders have

been found guilty in the past and are spending time in prison.

“If so, we need to put them back through the court process so it

can be determined if the Supreme Court’s decision is going to affect

their case,” she said.

Most of the cases are “problematic,” especially the one involving

68-year-old Denis Lyons, who served as pastor of St. John the Baptist

Church on Baker Street for 18 years. He was arrested by Costa Mesa

Police on April 25 in his Seal Beach home and charged with one count

of performing a lewd and lascivious act against a child younger than

16 and four counts of oral copulation -- all felonies.

Police said the investigation began in the spring of 2002 when a

38-year-old Costa Mesa man complained that he had been abused by

Lyons between 1979 and 1981 during one-on-one counseling sessions.

Thursday’s decision is definitely “not victim-friendly,” Costa

Mesa Det. Sgt. Jack Archer said.

“It hurts victims,” he said. “But it’s the law. There’s nothing we

can do about it.”

Deputy Dist. Atty. Beth Costello, who is the prosecutor on the

Lyons case, had earlier said it was a “strong case” with proof of

“substantial sexual conduct.”

Archer, whose department investigated Lyons’ case, said that case

is now in the district attorney’s hands. He said that is the only

Costa Mesa case which will be affected by the decision.

Newport Beach has no such pending cases that could be affected,

Sgt. Steve Shulman said.