At least 24 convicted child molesters have been freed from prison in the month since the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a California law on prosecuting sex offenders, according to a review of state corrections records.
They range from a 73-year-old minister convicted of molesting his two daughters in Tulare County in the 1970s to a Lancaster karate instructor who pleaded no contest last year to 14 counts of lewd conduct with his niece and a boy in the family.
Prosecutors in California expect to eventually release hundreds of prisoners in response to the Supreme Court ruling, which barred authorities from retroactively extending the period during which those accused of sex crimes against minors could be prosecuted.
Having the offenders back on the streets -- often years before their sentences were supposed to end -- leaves prosecutors frustrated and some victims bitter and worried.
"I'm angry, really angry, upset," said 33-year-old Tracey Salaices, whose uncle, the karate instructor, walked out of Salinas Valley State Prison last Thursday after serving seven months of a 27-year sentence for molesting her and the boy.
"I felt like everything that I went through and that I did was in vain," said Salaices, who testified against Daniel Robert Payan last year in a Pasadena courtroom.
Authorities estimate that 800 people were prosecuted under the 1994 state law that permitted charges to be filed against accused child molesters for long-ago crimes.
It gave prosecutors one year after authorities were notified of an alleged sex crime against a child to file criminal charges no matter how long ago the incident occurred.
In the wake of the Supreme Court decision, prosecutors are dismissing charges alleging sexual abuse that occurred before 1988.
Officials said they are still trying to determine exactly how many of those charged under the law are in prison or jail.
Los Angeles prosecutors initially estimated that 200 cases in Los Angeles County would be compromised by the ruling. But Los Angeles County Deputy Dist. Atty. Bill Hodgman, who oversees the sex crimes unit, now says, "The number will be more."
Meanwhile, his staff is painstakingly reviewing cases. On Wednesday, the office filed its first three requests to release convicted child abusers.
"We've got to get the wrongfully imprisoned out," Hodgman said, "but we must take care not to let someone out we shouldn't."
