The operator of a camp for troubled youth already facing kidnapping and other charges from a 2011 incident was charged Wednesday with sexually assaulting two 14-year-old girls in 2004.
Kelvin McFarland, 42, operator of Family 1st Growth Camp, is being held on $275,000 bail after pleading not guilty to five charges from the 2004 incidents, which did not occur in Pasadena, according to Los Angeles Deputy District Attorney Carolina Lugo.
The charges include forcible rape, sexual penetration by a foreign object and oral copulation of a person under the age of 16. One incident took place on March 19, 2004, and the other on Dec. 12, 2004, according to Lugo.
The charges are separate from a case stemming from a June 2011 incident in Pasadena where McFarland allegedly forced a teen from her parent’s home and attempted to extort money the family in an incident related to his boot camp operation. He has pleaded not guilty to all five charges stemming from that case.
Lugo said prosecutors have reviewed video from a separate incident allegedly involving McFarland. The video shows a boot camp operation in which juveniles are being forced to drink to excess and one child is forced to walk while wearing a car tire around his neck as adults yell at him from close range.
Lugo said she’s reviewed the Pasadena police investigation related to the video. “We’ll consider filing charges on anything where we can prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt,” Lugo said. As for the video probe, she said, “At this time there’s no filing.”
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-- Bill Kisliuk, Times Community News
Twitter: @bkisliuk
