Man gets 29 years for lewd acts with child

Dennis James Ward, 45, of Costa Mesa, was found guilty Sept. 10 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’s office. Ward received the maximum sentence Oct. 2.

This is his third time in prison for assaulting or molesting boys in Costa Mesa and Huntington Beach.

Ward is not eligible for California’s three-strike law because the original 1985 offense predates the law’s implementation. Ward is 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.

Ward will remain in prison for molesting a 4-year-old male 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.

Ward was sentenced to six years in state prison in 1985 for four felony counts of oral copulation with a minor.

— Britney Barnes