Serial molester gets 150 years
SAN JOSE, California — A man prosecutors said was one of the most prolific child molesters in the US was sentenced yesterday to 150 years in prison for abusing two 12-year-old boys.Dean Arthur Schwartzmiller, 64, who also had been convicted of sexual assaults in several states over three decades, was sentenced to the maximum term on 11 felony counts of child molestation and one misdemeanor charge of child pornography possession.
During the nearly three-week trial, prosecutor Steve Fein showed jurors a map of the "places and decades where the defendant has molested young boys." It included an estimated 100 accusers dating to 1969 in eight US states, Mexico and Brazil.
When Schwartzmiller was arrested in June 2005, investigators found a memoir describing abuse, binders full of child pornography and 1,500 notebook pages with headings including "blond boys," "no, but yes boys," and "best of the best, 13 and under."
Schwartzmiller, who represented himself during his October trial, told jurors that he was innocent and maligned by a society that does not accept men who love boys. He asked for an attorney to represent him during the sentencing phase.
During his testimony, Schwartzmiller said the memoir and notebook entries were fiction.
He blamed roommate Frederick Everts — also a convicted child molester — for the child porn. Schwartzmiller also said he could not have molested the two San Jose boys, who are cousins, because he was either at a construction job or bedridden with a bad back at the time.
Although police say Schwartzmiller appears to have spent much of the past three decades years in California, he has also been arrested on child molestation charges in New York, Idaho, Oregon, Arkansas and Washington. He has lived in Nevada, Texas and Washington.
Schwartzmiller has used aliases including Dean Harmon and Dean Miller, authorities said. He apparently gained the trust of victims and parents by working as a home renovation contractor. He did not register as a sex offender so he did not appear in the "Megan's Law" databases in California or other states, police said.
Police said Schwartzmiller befriended the two San Jose boys with gifts, invited them to his house for video games and movies, and molested them.
Judge Edward Lee said that despite Schwartzmiller's legal savvy in getting some previous charges dismissed, he will spend the rest of his days filing appeals from a prison cell.
