Director of hospital that treats child molesters accused of raping foster child

0

LOS ANGELES — The executive director of Napa State Hospital, a Northern California
mental institution whose patients include convicted child molesters,
was arrested Wednesday on suspicion of sexually molesting a foster
child in his care for more than a decade.

Claude Edward Foulk, 62, had been charged Tuesday with
35 felony counts, including 22 counts of forcible oral copulation, 11
counts of sodomy by use of force and two counts of forcible lewd act on
a child, according to the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office.

Prosecutors asked that bail be set at $3.5 million.

If convicted on all counts, he faces a maximum sentence of 280 years in state prison.

Foulk, an appointee of California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger,
allegedly began molesting the then-10-year-old boy in the fall of 1992,
shortly after taking him in as a foster child. They lived in Long Beach at the time, authorities said.

The molestation allegedly continued through 2003, after Foulk and the youth moved to Walnut, east of downtown Los Angeles.

Prosecutors said there are “numerous” additional
victims “who fall outside the statute of limitations.” According to a
statement from the Orange County
district attorney’s office, they cannot pursue cases of molestation
that occurred before 1988 because of a U.S. Supreme Court decision.

Police were alerted to the allegations of sexual
assault last year after one alleged victim, now in his 40s, discovered
that Foulk was in charge of a hospital in Northern California.

Neither Foulk nor his attorney could be reached for comment.

State officials released a statement Wednesday afternoon saying Foulk had been removed from his job.

Long Beach police served an arrest warrant at Napa State Hospital today, taking Executive Director Claude Edward Foulk into custody on felony charges of child molestation,” the statement
read. “Foulk served as executive director at the hospital from 2007 to
the present. The charges are related to incidents that predate Mr.
Foulk’s tenure at Napa State Hospital. Mr. Foulk’s employment with the
Department of Mental Health has been terminated, effective immediately.”

(c) 2010, Los Angeles Times.

Visit the Los Angeles Times on the Internet at http://www.latimes.com/

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.