O.C. Man, 86, Guilty in Sex Tourism Case

An 86-year-old Garden Grove man faces what amounts to a death sentence after his conviction Friday stemming from a trip he had planned last year to have sex with underage girls in the Philippines.

John W. Seljan reacted without emotion when U.S. District Court Judge Alicemarie H. Stotler pronounced him guilty of six counts brought against him under the 2003 Protect Act, a federal law to curb sex tourism.

He became the first American convicted under the new law.

Stotler, who heard the case without a jury, convicted Seljan of attempting to travel to the Philippines to engage in illegal sexual conduct with a minor, enticing two minors to engage in an illegal sex act, producing child pornography and possession of child pornography.

She acquitted him of one count of producing child pornography.

Assistant U.S. Atty. Richard Lee said Seljan faces a minimum of 10 years in prison but can receive 180 years when he returns for sentencing in March.

Citing Seljan’s age and physical condition, defense attorney Allan H. Stokke said his client will probably die in prison. But Stokke has not ruled out an appeal.

Seljan sat motionless in a wheelchair during the brief hearing and barely spoke with his attorney. He used headphones to listen as the judge read the verdict.

Lee said Seljan has a history of engaging in sex with minors. He said Seljan was convicted in 1977 of first-degree sexual assault of a minor in Wisconsin but was not jailed. Stokke insisted that that case did not result in a conviction.

Nevertheless, Lee said he intended to use the 1977 case at Seljan’s sentencing hearing to persuade Stotler to hand down a lengthy sentence.

Stokke said it is unlikely that Seljan will be able to avoid prison, even if the judge were allowed to consider Seljan’s age. He criticized the statute used to convict Seljan as unduly harsh.

He said Seljan believed he was not breaking Philippine law by engaging in sex with young girls.

Lee called Seljan a sexual predator and said the new federal law made it easier to put together a case. “For those who say he’s 86 [and not a threat], let me say that when he was 84 and 85 he was going to the Philippines and molesting children,” he said.

Seljan has been in custody since October 2003, when U.S. Customs inspectors arrested him at Los Angeles International Airport before he boarded a flight to the Philippines. He was carrying 100 pounds of chocolate and pistachios in his luggage, along with sexual aids and letters from girls who were 9 and 11.

Inspectors also found dozens of photographs of Seljan and naked girls.

He told inspectors that he had been traveling to the Philippines for more than 20 years to give sex lessons to young girls, with their mothers’ permission.

Seljan is the former owner of a cleaning products business. Stokke said Seljan’s wife died about 11 years ago. Lee said Seljan has a family but declined to disclose further details.