Man guilty of assault

A Costa Mesa man was found guilty Sept. 10 of sexually assaulting a 4-year-old boy — his third time being found guilty of sexually assaulting or molesting boys in Costa Mesa and Huntington Beach.

Dennis James Ward, 45, was found guilty of nine felony counts of lewd acts on a child under 14 with a sentencing enhancement for substantial sexual conduct with a child according to a release from the Orange County district attorney. Ward is facing a maximum sentence of 29 years in state prison. Ward is not eligible for California’s three-strike law, because the original 1985 offense was before the law’s implementation.

The district attorney was working to have Ward committed as a sexually violent predator, said spokeswoman Farrah Emami. Ward was serving 23 years in state prison for six felony counts of lewd acts on a child under 14 for molesting two boys in his Huntington Beach neighborhood in the early 1990s. Ward was scheduled to be released early in November 2007 until the latest charges came to light.

The district attorney is dropping the case to have him committed as a predator now that he has been found guilty and will not be released from prison for a maximum of 29 years, Emami said.

Ward will remain in prison for molesting his 4-year-old relative on multiple occasions before the Huntington Beach offense. The victim didn’t press charges until 2007 for fear of hurting his family. The victim decided to report the incidents to the Costa Mesa Police Department after Ward called him and the victim confronted Ward about the situation.

This will be Ward’s third term in prison. He was sentenced to six years in state prison in 1985 for four felony counts of oral copulation with a minor.

Ward will be sentenced at 9 a.m. Oct. 2 in C-43 at the Central Justice Center in Santa Ana.