The Don Rogers

Child Molester Ring

and

Mr. Rogers Neighborhood

State Senator Don Rogers is the most conservative Gay member of California's legislature. He's been a John Birch Society member and registered with the American Independent Party, but Rogers is now a

Republican with a district including Kern County, Kings County, part of San Bernardino County, and parts of Los Angeles (Pasadena area) County.

Rogers has taken steps to protect men he appointed to public office who were involved in murders and child molestation.

Don Rogers, his appointees and friends are the inner circle of the child molester ring known as the Lords of Bakersfield. They prosper because they are protected by the Bakersfield Californian newspaper and its Editor/Co publisher Ted Fritts who is one of those powerful child molesters who indulges in the sexual exploitation of children.

The power of Don Rogers is so great that no one challenged the appropriateness of Rogers participation in drugs-sex parties hosted by Glen Fitts in which children were paid off for sex with cash and drugs,

and no one challenged Rogers stopping by the get-togethers his Administrative Assistant Stan Harper hosted while Harper was living with and sleeping with a juvenile ward of the court. Because Rogers is powerful enough to avoid answering questions concerning his party-going life style, it remains unproven which nights he attended those functions, and just how deeply he was involved in the frolicking the particular nights prior to the murders of Tommy Tarver and Dana Charleen Butler. It is known that Rogers has a violent temper and flies a private plane, making his movements between Bakersfield and Sacramento even more difficult to pin down.

Then there is California Prison Commissioner Al Leddy, the former Kern County DA who proved child molestation can be made to pay. Leddy refused to prosecute Ted Fritts and Stan Harper (the campaign consultant who manages Rogers' political career) for their sexual molestation of juvenile ward of the court Robert Glen Mistriel, and Leddy even took steps to insure the sexual molestation of juvenile wards of the court by Fritts, Harper, and other prominent men was not interrupted. In so doing, Leddy contributed to the causation of the murder of Kern County Personnel Director Ed Buck, but did insulate Rogers from the embarrassment that Harper's prosecution would have generated. Today Leddy prospers as a well paid member of the State Board of Prison Terms.

The turning point for Kern County came in January 1978 when Don Rogers was a Bakersfield City Council member and Ted Fritts was six months into his sexual relationship with a 13 year old boy named Robert Glen Mistriel.

When a Gay man named Tommy Tarver was murdered, Leddy conspired with then Deputy DA Clarence Westra to prevent a 13 year old eyewitness from disclosing what took place, because that would have exposed the boy's sexual exploitation by adults including Ted Fritts. The murderers of Tarver remain unpunished, although Leddy was then aware of evidence that either Don Rogers, or Stan Harper, or Ted Fritts was a murderer in addition to being a child molester.

Leddy couldn't let Mistriel get on a witness stand without exposing Rogers and Ted Fritts as homosexual child molesters, and even though the DA’s Office admitted in Superior Court in 1983 that Mistriel had witnessed the Tarver murder, to date Mistriel has been prevented from revealing exactly what he saw.

Rogers was elected to the State Assembly in 1978, and the cover-up of the men who were passing Robert Glen Mistriel around (as early as June 18, 1977) left Kern County with a DA, a State Assemblyman, and a newspaper publisher who had no choice but to perpetuate their cover-up, and insure that only their own kind be allowed close enough to the core of the Kern criminal "justice" system to be exposed to their dirty secrets.

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That is why since January 1978 it has been the policy and desire of the Bakersfield Californian to wield every weapon at its disposal to protect its child molesting editor Ted Fritts and his child molester friends from exposure. And in pursuing that policy, the Bakersfield Californian and Ted Fritts realized the worst fears of Ted's family.

Ted was about six years old when his mother decided he was mentally ill and Ted was a teenager in the 1960's when the publisher of the Bakersfield Californian was earning a reputation as a washroom homosexual with a liking for little boys. That wasn't the best of environments, but even when Ted was living in Hillsborough, California his early years were marked by the cruel and bizarre, and an ability to use family influence to break the law and get away with it.

Ted Fritts' Hillsborough boyhood was enlivened by at least one act of arson when he set a fire that endangered the home of Judge Raymond L Sullivan. As Bakersfield Californian Editor/Co publisher, Fritts raised eyebrows when he printed signed columns that spoke of the "greatness" of Adolph Hitler, and called for a killer to come forward and murder a political leader who displeased Ted.

By June 1977, Ted was breaking up with his wife and breaking off with a Bay area teenager that Ted had brought to the Bakersfield Californian as a copy boy. That's when Ted Fritts became sexually involved with then 13 year old Robert Glen Mistriel who was to share his bed, borrow his cars, and come to work on the Bakersfield Californian. Later convicted of the 1981 murder of Kern County Personnel Director Ed Buck, this was the same Mistriel who came to the attention of the Kern District Attorney's office in 1978 after he witnessed the murder of Tommy Tarver. After Buck was murdered, the Bakersfield Californian distorted, concealed and outright lied to hide Mistriel’s sometime employment by that paper, and the fact that the night Buck was killed he was en-route to a double date weekend with another adult who had Buck set up to be murdered.

In 1979, Rogers' friend and appointee Glen Fitts was hosting drugs/sex parties for juveniles that resulted in the murder of 14 year old Dana Charlene Butler. Dana was locked up and later murdered to keep her from talking about who was present when her rectum was lacerated during a drugs/sex party at the Fitts house, and Kern County residents are still asking when was the last time Rogers visited Fitts at his home, and who double-dated with Fitts for an evening of sex with juvenile boys on April 11, 1979.

Leddy was so desperate to protect his child molesting friends who were involved in the drug sex parties resulting in Butler's murder that he caused juvenile boys to be locked up for selling sex to grown men,

but concealed the identities of the adults who were paying the boys for homosexual sex. In so doing, Leddy got the boys who could talk about his friends off the streets, out of sight, and out of mind.

That's reason enough to be concerned about what is going on in Mr. Rogers' neighborhood.

Rogers and his political protégé Kern County District Attorney Ed Jagels spearheaded the "Oust Rose Bird campaign". The pistol packing DA of Kern County also attracted attention in Fall 1986 when Jagels attempted to buy "rock cocaine" from a 16 year old boy in a high crime section of Bakersfield. After the boy took Jagels $20, Jagels whipped out a short barreled revolver, shoved it in the boy's face, and told him to "freeze". Soon after the boy took off with Jagels' money, the DA submitted a claim to his friend Richard Oberholzer, Bakersfield City Attorney, saying that the City should make good on his loss. Stan Harper (sometimes Rogers' Administrative Assistant and campaign manager, sometimes bedmate of Robert Glen Mistriel) managed the 1982 campaign that made Jagles Kern County DA at a time when Mistriel was facing trial for killing Ed Buck, and the DA's office was well aware that Harper was one of the men who had been passing around juvenile wards of the court such as Mistriel for sexual gratification.

Harper was serving as a Rogers' appointee in 1984 when he took over control of Kern County Head Start program. Perhaps Rogers considered Harper qualified to serve as his representative on the Board controlling Head Start and the Lowell Youth Program based on Mistriel’s testimony that while he was a juvenile ward of the court he'd lived with Harper during the months before he'd murdered Ed Buck.

Or perhaps the testimony of Mistriel’s probation officer that her juvenile ward of the court was receiving money and material goods in exchange for sex from Ted Fritts and Stan Harper in 1979 and 1980 (when Mistriel was about 14 to 15 years old) convinced Rogers that Harper could implement programs to develop the character of young people along lines consistent with the Rogers political philosophy. It may also be that Rogers was impressed by the cost effectiveness Harper demonstrated in 1979 and 1980 by having sex with Mistriel, while the taxpayers picked up the tab for boarding Mistriel in a home for juvenile wards of the court.

And perhaps because of the conditioning Mistriel received white a juvenile ward of the court, Ed Buck was murdered, and since Mistriel is now serving time, you could say the Harper program even arranged for Mistriel’s to be provided for - albeit by the taxpayers - during his after-cute years.

Rogers always has expressed concern over government spending, and Harper did make sweeping fiscal changes when he took over Head Start. When the low income community protested, the Bakersfield Californian ran a story saying Harper was close to Ronald Reagan and had received a plaque for service to the White House. The Bakersfield Californian also printed a laudatory endorsement from Harper's friend Deputy DA Andy Gindes who helped Harper take over Head Start.

Newsmen outside of Kern County who are aware of Rogers' involvement with Fitts, Harper, and other child molesters say their editors will not print the Rogers story because their papers "have agreed not to offend the Gay community." That is regrettable, because the issue is not the sexual preference of adults, but the sexual exploitation of children. It's simply a question of whether adult men can get away with ruining the lives of children and committing murder while satisfying their sexual appetites.

The Pasadena Star News is one example of a newspaper that has covered up for Don Rogers and his friends, instead of allowing their readers to judge for themselves what impact the record of appointments made by Rogers has on his fitness to serve as State Senator. And in so doing, the Pasadena Star News exposes its readers and their families to dangers that are more than a Bakersfield problem, because there are friends of Don Rogers that are frequent visitors to Pasadena, who frequently socialize in Pasadena.

Ted Fritts is fond of drama, and not without talent or resources when it comes to staging theatrical events. And because Fritts is a protected child molester in Bakersfield, he is viewed as a respected prospective "angel" by community players groups in the Pasadena area. If Ted Fritts proposes a revival of BOYS IN THE BAND, his financial support could enrich Pasadena's performing arts. If Ted Fritts proposes a community production of OLIVER, his record with young people could lead to the same future for the juvenile members of the cast as for Robert Glen Mistriel, and the fact is Ted Fritts has been involved in community productions of OLIVER that played to mixed reviews in regard to the backstage dramas engendered by the proclivities of Ted Fritts.

Newsmen say the intent of the agreement among California publishers "not to offend the Gay Community" was to prevent campaign name calling based on sex preferences between consenting adults. Yet that agreement has been twisted by Ted Fritts to prevent the truth from coming out about the murder of a 14 year old heterosexual girl, and the prostitution of a 13 year old boy who grew up to be a murderer because

Ted Fritts was able to convince other publishers that acts of child molestation by Fritts and his friends are "Gay stories", rather than crime stories involving murders and child molesters who were in some instances Gay. Newsman also say publishers are reluctant to challenge the protection Ted Fritts invokes for those in his domain, and that Rogers being the oil lobby's favorite legislator doesn't hurt him a bit.

For example, it is irony that the Knight-Ridder Chain that owns the Miami Herald and the Pasadena Star News was willing to attack Gary Hart because of a relationship with an adult woman, when no crime was

committed, and no sexual activity confirmed, although in 1986 when Rogers was campaigning for State Senate the Pasadena Star News refused to print a word about Rogers' appointees Fitts and Harper, Dana Charlene Butler, Robert Glen Mistriel, and the Kern Head Start Program.

In so doing the Knight-Ridder chain demonstrated a politician running for office in their circulation area takes a greater risk being seen with a single adult woman, than by appointing men to office who give drugs to children, sodomize juvenile boys, and murder 14 year old girls.

The Knight-Ridder chain's acceptance of Rogers naming Stan Harper to take over a Head Start program does raise questions as to legitimacy of Knight-Ridder papers editorializing on morality, when the Knight-Ridder chain is somewhat flexible with its own moral agenda.

And there remains the unanswered question as to why publishers presume the Gay Community feels any kinship with Rogers, Harper, Fritts, Leddy and the remainder of their clique. The Bakersfield Californian has a well-deserved reputation for being a racist, anti-labor, anti-woman paper that controls its own guild through unfair practices and coercion. While recognized Gay leaders are advocating that responsible Gays should be able to become adoptive parents of children, Ted Fritts has been sexually molesting children. There is no evidence "the Gay Community" has embraced the Lords of Bakersfield as their own, or would be “offended” if the exposure of that ring of child molesters and murderers prevented the molestation of any more children and prevented any more juvenile girls and Gay men from being murdered.

Murders have been committed that would not have been committed if the media and the Kern DA's office were not covering up for this Bakersfield child molestation ring.

Tarver and Buck were Gay, and they were murdered. As were a number of other Gay men who were killed in Kern County under circumstances that left their murders "unsolved".

While Ted Fritts was pontificating as a self-appointed spokes-person on what would "offend the Gay Community" and Stan Harper was managing the political career of Don Rogers, both Fritts and Harper found time to have sex with their juvenile friend Robert Glen Mistriel. And Mistriel found time to murder Ed Buck.

So Ed Buck, who was Gay, may have died “un-offended”, but die he did, and it is a certainty that he would not have been murdered by Mistriel if Leddy and a number of publishers "in the know" had not covered up for the men who were passing around that particular juvenile ward of the court as a boy prostitute.

Men such as Harper are protected because they know the degree to which Rogers, Ted Fritts, and others were involved in the events and sexual exploitation of 13, 14 and 15 year old juveniles that led to the Tarver, Butler, and Buck murders.

Rogers is a State Senator as the result of Stan Harper's image building and the California Publishers policy that allows child molesting politicians to keep their lurid private lives private, but posture to the electorate as being "tough on crime and sex offenders." Although virtually unopposed, Rogers lost thousands of votes in the 1986 Republican primary to a candidate in name only, who did not even campaign, or do more than place his name on the ballot. That was a protest vote by Kern Republicans who knew the extent of the Rogers child molestation ring.

The Harper-constructed Rogers image is presented to voters who would recoil in disgust if they were aware of just those connections of Rogers to the Dana Butler and Tarver murders, and to the prostitution of Robert Glen Mistriel that are public record.

The Lords of Bakersfield story is not a "Gay story' but a crime story about criminals who are not necessarily gay, who molest and murder children, and murder men who are Gay.

Another recent cover-up involved Bakersfield Assistant Police Chief Bill Thompson's sexual assaults on women. Thompson's victims came to the police station and complained, but their statements disappeared. Lawmen started complaining to newsmen, the Bakersfield Californian sat on the story, and the DA's office conducted a "confidential" investigation causing a few more records to disappear.

Police officers went to the Grand Jury, and telephones were ringing off the hook in news rooms between Sacramento and Bakersfield for months before Thompson announced his impending retirement. By that time the DA's manipulations caused women who had come forward to report Thompson's crimes to decide they really didn't want to be witnesses, after all. Officer Bruce Adair was suspended for going to the Grand Jury, and Kent Vaughn, another officer who had first-hand knowledge, of a woman Thompson sexually assaulted, was told by Bakersfield City Attorney Richard Oberholzer that whatever he said about the matter was "a career decision". That cover-up went on for more than a year until Thompson announced that he intended to retire, but only after he completed another year of service to qualify for a slightly higher pension. The end result was more damage was suffered by the police officers who were honest, than the Assistant Police Chief who was sexually assaulting, women, but of course stories Thompson could have told, stayed untold. Thompson retired February 23, 1987, able to collect half of his $59,000-a-year salary, albeit subject to taxation. Then in May 1987 the City Attorney's Office slipped a package through the City Manager that changed Thompson's retirement to a tax free "industrial disability retirement", although the city refused to identify the basis for Thompson's "disability".

When Bakersfield City Council member Mark Salvaggio wanted to go on record as saying he didn't agree with the decision to make Thompson's retirement tax free, City Manager George Caravalho rebuked Salvaggio for daring to mention the matter and said Salvaggio doing so was troubling, because Salvaggio didn't "have all the facts". Caravalho then said Salvaggio wasn't going to get any more facts, because the "facts of the matter are confidential". In this he was supported by City Attorney Oberholzer who said that the council had no role in the decision. Bakersfield City Attorney Richard Oberholzer makes a practice of taking care of his friends, and himself. For example, Oberholzer owned about 200 shares of IT Corporation stock at the same time he authorized a $26,000 payout of city funds to IT Corporation for a toxic waste clean-up.

Oberholzer et a1. also contract as city attorney for outlying Kern communities including Taft and Shafter. When the embezzlement of more than $100,000 of City of Shafter funds was brought to Oberholzer's attention, he covered it up. In 1985 questions arose concerning a Las Vegas, Nevada ,gambling-drinking excursion hosted by Shafter Mayor Don Zachary, and paid for with embezzled City of Shafter funds. A police officer publicly stated that Zachary's Las Vegas trip was a payoff to Zachary's friends who were willing to go along with a cover-up of a child molestation ring involving Ted Fritts and other prominent men including Stan Harper. Oberholzer took the position as to Zachary's junket that he and Zachary had no obligation to answer as to how public money was spent. Zachary supported Rogers in his campaign for State Senate, and has yet to answer questions as to how more than $100,000 disappeared from the City of Shafter.

In fall, 1986 a citizen submitted a written request to Oberholzer, in his capacity as Shafter City Attorney, to explain what happened to more than $100,000 of municipal funds that had disappeared. At a public meeting Oberholzer told the Shafter City Council that he had received the written request or an explanation as to what happened to the embezzled money, but that there wasn't anyone that could make him answer, and he thought it was funny that a mere citizen would presume the HE, Richard Oberholzer, had to explain anything to a mere taxpayer. In public meeting Oberholzer actually said "That's funny that they think they can demand to know where their money went. I find that humorous, and it is humorous, and here I am laughing at them." "Ha," Oberholzer then said. "Ha Ha."

That may seem unusual behavior, but consider that Oberholzer's intimates such as Glen Fitts and Ted Fritts were involved in child molestation and murder, and realize that Oberholzer's sense of humor is that of a clique that dismisses crimes such as embezzlement, child molest, or murder with a laugh.

When Don Rogers was on the Bakersfield City Council, Rogers and Oberholzer worked together to have their child molesting homosexual friend Glen Fitts appointed to the Bakersfield Police Commission by bypassing the usual selection process. Shafter's Mayor Don Zachary proved he and Oberholzer could work equally well together when the Zachary-Oberholzer team came up with a scheme to keep Zachary stooges on the Shafter City Council without the inconvenience of an election. Zachary-Oberholzer changed the filing dates for City Council candidates, and then took steps to insure the new filing deadlines were not made public. The deadline came and after only Zachary's candidates had filed for the Council race, Zachary-Oberholzer said the City could "save money" by naming the Zachary candidates to the Council and canceling the municipal election which would only be open to write-in challengers in any event. So Zachary had his two people named to the City Council, the city "saved money" by not bothering with the "formality" of an 1986 City Council election, and a Council continued to serve that was willing to let the questions concerning Zachary's Las Vegas drinking-gambling sprees that were paid for with embezzled city funds remain unanswered.

Not all of the Bakersfield City Council was happy with Oberholzer's cover-ups. There was a 4-3 vote to fire Oberholzer the Bakersfield Californian didn't bother to report, but as the 1987 Bakersfield City Council campaigns began to gain momentum, Oberholzer became an issue. Then Oberholzer struck back, arranging for the District Attorney's Office to file a criminal complaint charging a councilman who was an Oberholzer critic with child endangerment. Then Oberholzer released reports to the media alleging that councilman had endangered two children by leaving them alone in his station wagon in a shopping mail parking lot while he went inside to his business. That story got maximum Bakersfield Californian coverage, and bought time for Oberholzer who, meanwhile turned to Don Rogers for help.

The courts threw out the charge brought against the councilman, observing that leaving two kids alone in a parked car wasn't even close to what the law defined as "child endangerment."

And in August, 1987 Rogers arranged for Oberholzer to leave his position as City Attorney with its base salary of $80,532, and take an appointment as a Superior Court Judge.

Oberholzer's record as a friend of Rogers is worthy of attention. It was Oberholzer who helped Rogers get Glen Fitts appointed to the Bakersfield Police Commission, and Oberholzer who helped tidy up the loose ends after Tommy Tarver was murdered, and in so doing prevented the exposure of Rogers and Ted Fritts as participants in a child molestation ring.

It was Oberholzer and Leddy who protected their friend Rogers from the consequences of the drugs-sex parties that resulted in the murder of Dana Butler, and it was Oberholzer again who sent his assistants into

Superior Court to prevent the release of the Tarver files during the Buck murder prosecution.

As a Superior Court judge, Oberholzer should fit right in. About a week after Oberholzer's appointment to the bench was announced, county officials admitted that at least $18,000 had been stolen from the

Superior Court evidence locker. Given Oberholzer's record for covering up embezzlements of public money such as the more than $100,000 still missing from the City of Shafter, Oberholzer will come to a Superior Court where at least one employee shares his point of view.

It's not just powerful child molesters who are protected in Bakersfield, and it's not just little boys who have their lives ruined, as was demonstrated by the execution of 14 year old Dana Butler.

The Kern DA and the Bakersfield Californian maintain two sets of laws in Kern County, and insure the Lords of Bakersfield and their friends are above the law and can get away with murder.

When "Bobby" Mistriel was waiting to stand trial for the Buck murder, he used to amuse the curious with details of the dungeon Ted Fritts set up, and how Fritts used the bodies of children for his own pleasure. Just your basic down home stories about how a bored little rich boy whiled away the time in Bakersfield, and because Fritts was rich, and powerful, he was allowed to do as he pleased.

How the average citizen is treated in Bakersfield is a different story, particularly when DA Ed Jagels wanted to posture as being "tough on sex offenders".

For several years it had been child molestation trial headlines for the DA, and lurid stories to boost circulation for the Bakersfield Californian. The 1980s saw the Bakersfield Californian and the Kern DA's office exploit a series of accusations arising from family disputes and transform them into circulation building show trials.

The record shows the sleaziest elements within the DA's office adjusted testimony, rehearsed preteen witnesses, and suppressed medical evidence to put on elaborate shows, while the Bakersfield Californian ran editorials encouraging law enforcement agencies to compete to run up the score of child molestation cases. That, at the same time the Bakersfield Californian's management was bedded down with their own children of choice. Then the Kern Bar Association and an outraged community forced a reluctant Attorney Generals office to spend about $500,000 and six months to examine the tangle of irregularities that passed for prosecution in Kern. Then dismissals took place, and convictions were overturned. Small wonder.

The Sacramento Bee editorialized that the tactics and ill-conceived child molestation prosecutions of the Kern DA's office were a disgrace and a problem for all California residents. The most odious of those prosecutions were handled by Deputy DA Andy "The Ginder" Gindes. Gindes was hired by A1 Leddy and came to Kern under a cloud after being accused of subornation of perjury in the attempted frame-up of a

Hispanic college student in Tulare County.

Even in a county like Kern there were ethical practitioners in the DA's office who were stunned that a lawyer with as scummy a record as Gindes could find his way into their midst, but Leddy knew exactly what he was doing. Because Gindes homosexual lovers included child molesting friends of Leddy, Leddy knew he could depend on "The Ginder" to protect the Don Rogers child molester ring, and to nail together those distinctly Kern County style of cases that Leddy was fond of presenting to generate a headline, discredit an opponent, or protect one of his own.

If "The Ginder" really wanted to do something about child molesters, he had the opportunity in 1984 when he sat as Ed Jagels' representative, on the Board directing the Kern County Head Start program, and voted to name Rogers' appointee Stan Harper as the chairman. But of course Gindes was too busy ingratiating himself with the Rogers clique to prosecute his friend Harper for having sex with a juvenile ward of the court.

Instead, the Kern DA's office jailed young mothers such as Cheryl Gonzales, and the Bakersfield Californian ran stories calling Gonzales a child molester. Then the Gonzales children accused Deputy District Attorney Sara 0. Ryals of molesting them, and said Ryals attended satanic parties where children were sexually molested. When those accusations surfaced in court, the Bakersfield Californian downplayed them and refused to identify Ryals by name. The DA's office maintained the Gonzales children were lying about Deputy District Attorney Sara 0. Ryals when they called her a child molester, but were telling the truth when they accused their own mother. The charges against Gonzales were dismissed after the Attorney General finished with Kern County, but the Attorney General left the job only partially done.

The Attorney General's superficial look at Kern left many stones unturned, and in May 1987 unpleasant skeletons began to emerge from beneath those stones, and from "The Ginder's" closet. That's when a Bakersfield girl said her earlier testimony that contributed to her grandmother, three uncles, and two aunts being sentenced to prison terms was a collection of lies told because of pressure from Gindes and the DA's child-abuse coordinator.

"None of its true. They made me do it, they made me say it, and it wasn't true. None of it," said the girl who reported being pressured into becoming a false witness for "The Ginder". "I told them nothing happened, but they kept after me and after me and after me, over and over and over. So finally I said something had happened so they would stop bugging me about it."

The girl was 11 when she became the first witness to testify in the "Pitts Ring" trial for molestation allegations that initially surfaced when Ricky Lynn Pitts and his wife, Marcella, tried to gain custody of Marcella's sons by a previous marriage. Those accusations grew to include claims of brutal molestations and vicious acts of degradation, and when the five-month trial was over in mid-1985, the court imposed sentences. "The Ginder's" one-time star witness now says "I think they should get out of prison because they didn't do anything", and went on to say she knew other witnesses that testified in the case also lied, because those children testified that they had sexual contact with her and had seen her molested by adults, and she knows those witnesses were lying because she has never been molested by anyone. "It's not true and they shouldn't have to suffer for it any more," the girl said.

The girl said she'd been subjected to about 30 questioning sessions by the DA's office in the weeks before she took the stand, and that Gindes insisted she describe molestations. That was significant because the Pitts case depended almost exclusively on the young prosecution witnesses. There was virtually no physical evidence and, at least in the case of "The Cinder's" false witness, no medical evidence.

After those May 1987 admissions by that girl, the attorney spoke out who was appealing the 1985 conviction of Ricky Lynn Pitts. Appeals attorney Michael R. Snedeker revealed that Gindes concealed the fact that a doctor found there was "no physical evidence of sexual abuse" when the girl was examined before the trial. Snedeker accused the Kern DA's office of disobeying court orders and misrepresenting evidence, and told the 5th District Court of Appeal in Fresno that the medical report proved that prosecutors suppressed evidence favorable to the defense.

Although the DA's office acknowledged the existence of the medical report, Gindes claimed he didn't know about the examination or report by Dr. Jess Diamond, Chief of Pediatrics at the Kern County Medical Center. Dr. Diamond's report said the girl, then 11, was brought to the hospital for tests by Gait Wright of the district attorney's office.

During the 1985 trial Pitts and the other defendants repeatedly asked Superior Court Judge Gary T. Friedman to order medical examinations of the seven alleged victims in the case, but Friedman refused to order those examinations. When a defense lawyer asked "The Cinder's" now-recanting witness whether she had been examined by a doctor, Gindes objected and had the question killed before it was answered. "I don't think there is any reason to question (the girl) about examinations she has received," Gindes told the judge.

"I'm not aware of any evidence that she had any type of physical examination that is relevant to this case," Gindes said on March 5, 1985, but the medical records show the DA's office took the girl to see child sexual abuse expert Diamond, five months earlier, on December 6, 1984. "Gail Wright, investigator aide, has brought (the girl), age 11, for examination for suspect child abuse/sexual abuse" Diamond wrote in his notes. There was "no evidence of recent trauma or bruising" that would indicate sexual abuse, according to Diamond's report.

Dominic Eyherabide, a defense attorney during the Pitts trial, was about to get a copy of the report in May 1987. The girl's father said he had been asked by district attorney's child-abuse case coordinator in late 1984 if he would approve a medical examination of the girl, and he gave his approval, but he never learned the results of the examination until Eyherabide gave him copies of Diamond's report in May 1987.

Given the Rogers record for bringing about judicial appointments in Kern County, it may only be a matter of time before "The Ginder" becomes a judge.