SBCDistrictAttorneySource: Santa Barbara County District Attorney
Santa Barbara County District Attorney Joyce E. Dudley announced that late yesterday afternoon on October 6, 2021, a Santa Barbara jury unanimously found Howard W., 59, guilty of guilty of seven counts of child molestation committed on his two daughters. The jury also found true the special allegation pursuant to Penal Code section 667.61 that the defendant committed the child molestations against multiple victims.
The successful prosecution was the result of the bravery of the defendant’s two daughters who spoke of their abuses to local school counselors, who then notified our local agencies and an investigation ensued. Through the diligent work of the school counselors, Child Welfare Services and the excellent investigation conducted by Sergeant Matt Banks of the Santa Barbara Sheriff’s Department, the defendant was arrested and successfully prosecuted.
District Attorney Joyce E. Dudley commented “The heroic victims/survivors showed great courage in testifying and confronting their abuser in order to hold him accountable for her horrendous acts of molestation and child abuse.” Prosecuting Attorney, Supervising Deputy District Attorney Benjamin Ladinig thanked the jury for their extraordinary patience with the process and fulfilling their duty to serve during these unprecedented times.
The defendant is scheduled to be sentenced by the Honorable Judge Thomas R. Adams on November 15, 2021 at 1:30 p.m. in Department 1 of the Santa Barbara Superior Court.
A picture should always be shown of molesters and their full name. It is always possible their are even more victims. This is unfortunately, horribly common.
Oh, how awful. What brave girls. I hope they consented to this post. Even with a last name removed, they may be identifiable to those who know them.
This is “rape” and “incest.” As a reminder, Californians, unlike, say, Texans, are lucky to have legal, close-to-home options to handle any reproductive results from rape and incest; whether the victim, if pregnancy results, wishes to carry to term, or whether she finds results impossibly repugnant , or finds herself too shocked or depressed or frightened to carry on without surgical intervention in the course of her life that suddenly has, in her estimation, been sent too far off the rails from what she planned, or believes she can bear, whether in the next handful of months, or in the next decade or so.