‘It Was Just Such a Relief’

BAKERSFIELD —  It had been an exhilarating week for John Stoll. Easily one of the best he’s had in 19 years. That may not be saying much, since he spent those years in one or another California prison.

Still, he couldn’t seem to keep a smile off his face as he sat chatting in a classroom at the Kern County Jail outside Bakersfield. After all those years, four men who accused Stoll of molesting them when they were children took the stand last week and said he never touched them. Several broke down in tears over what they had done.

“When those kids said, ‘I didn’t do it,’ oh, my God, that was just so ... I really have a hard time explaining. It was just such a relief,” he said.

Stoll was a divorced carpenter trying to raise a 6-year-old child when he was convicted in 1985 and sentenced to 40 years in prison for leading a ring of child abusers. Stoll had no way of knowing it, but he was caught up in one of the most ambitious child-abuse investigations in the nation, one that would eventually collapse and besmirch the reputation of Kern County law enforcement.

Stoll said that the 19 years since his arrest have been lonely and at times desperate. He dared not share his story with fellow inmates -- a child molester is a frequent target of violence in prison.

Then, several years ago, members of the Northern California Innocence Project contacted him and said they were interested in examining his case. Last year, the attorneys filed a petition with the Kern County courts, claiming, among other things, that the original conviction was flawed by the manner in which the children were interrogated.

About eight months ago, Stoll was anxiously waiting in a Central Valley prison to see if the court would grant him a hearing. He was buttoned-down, wary. The perfect institutional man, he’d learned not to look ahead or behind. You only got through the days by dealing with them one by one.

The man who sat talking at the Kern County Jail last week couldn’t have been more different. He was almost ebullient. “I don’t know how to explain how it feels” to finally have corroboration for his decades-old denials that he did anything wrong, Stoll said.

Yet he knows there is no guarantee he will win his freedom. The district attorney’s office will present its side of the case in a few weeks.

“I am aware of what’s to come,” Stoll said. “I’m sure the [female prosecutor] is going to do her best to make me look like the evil one.”

Besides the original investigators, who are expected to deny bullying the child “victims,” another witness likely to be called is John Stoll’s son, Jed. He has given an affidavit to the D.A.’s office saying he stands by his earlier testimony that his father molested him. But as the youngest alleged victim, at 6, he was the most vulnerable to manipulation, attorneys said.

John Stoll said it hurts worse than anything to know his son believes that about him. “Jed’s the one I really wanted to hear say I didn’t do it,” Stoll said, his eyes welling up.

Asked if he was prepared to face his son in court, he shook his head. “Not at all.”

He also admits to being too scared to think about the future. Although Stoll has a parole date coming up next year, there is no guarantee he will be released then either. If Kern County classifies him as a sexually violent predator, he could be held indefinitely.

Still, last week was a good week. “No matter what happens,” Stoll said, smiling again, “to hear those kids, it was so unbelievable.”