3 Newport-Mesa sex crime trials set

Deepa Bharath

In the next few weeks, three Santa Ana courtrooms are set to be

inundated with trials relating to sex crimes against children.

Two of the high-profile cases are from Newport Beach, while the

other is out of Costa Mesa.

Newport Beach sex crime detectives worked on two back-to-back

cases last year. The first one came in April when Trenton Veches, a

city recreation coordinator who supervised several after-school

programs, was arrested on suspicion of sucking several boys’ toes.

Investigators sifted through hundreds of digital images in his home

computer and found several photos of young boys who reportedly

participated in the city’s recreational programs

The 32-year-old Huntington Beach resident now faces 28 felony

counts of lewd contact with minors and one misdemeanor count of

possessing child pornography. Veches has pleaded not guilty to all

charges and quit his job after his arrest.

He is being held on a $500,000 bail. His trial is scheduled to

begin today.

Less than five months after Veches was arrested, Newport Beach

Police arrested Todd Haluch, a 35-year-old substitute teacher,

accusing him of sexually assaulting female students, at least one

from a Newport Beach high school. He faces 17 felony counts of sexual

assault and one count of witness intimidation.

He was first arrested Sept. 13 after a therapist who treated one

of the victims told police about it. Haluch posted the $250,000 bail

the same day. A second warrant on four fresh charges led to another

arrest Sept. 30. Haluch is now in Orange County Jail. He has pleaded

not guilty to all charges and his trial has been scheduled for April

28.

Costa Mesa Police are dealing with a complicated case involving

41-year-old Cary Smith, accused of molesting a boy about six years

ago. Smith was admitted to Patton State Hospital in 1999 after his

wife found a letter written by him that described in lurid detail

sexual acts that he wanted to perform on a 7-year-old Costa Mesa boy.

Now, he has been charged with 22 counts of child molestation.

Prosecutors say the victim, a Costa Mesa boy, was younger than 14

years old in 1997, when the alleged crimes happened, and came forward

with the complaint several years later. That is very common in child

molestation cases, Costa Mesa Police Detective Sgt. Jack Archer said.

“Often, victims are young and they don’t find the courage to come

forward until they’re older,” he said. “Usually, when they get

victimized, they are intimidated and embarrassed.”

Working on the case itself was a challenge, Officer Robert

Sharpnack said.

“My role was pretty limited,” he said. “All the information was

coming from the victim, and there was obviously no evidence other

than his statements.”

Sharpnack said he was “happy to get the case filed.”

“This is a huge case because of [Smith’s] past crime,” he said.

Sharpnack said it would take “a lot of work” to get a conviction

in the case, but said he is confident that Deputy Dist. Atty. Beth

Costello, the prosecutor on the case, will be successful.

Newport Beach’s four-member team has been working long hours on

its two cases, Sgt. Steve Shulman said.

“This type of work is not unusual for our detectives,” he said.

“What’s unusual is they came pretty close together, putting a big

workload on them.”

The work included processing several pieces of evidence and

interviewing many victims and witnesses, he said.

“Dealing with evidence can be pretty tedious and time-consuming,”

Shulman said. “And you can’t hurry your witnesses because it’s

emotional for them. We may be in a hurry to prosecute someone, but we

also need to be sensitive, especially with children. It’s tough for

them.”

* DEEPA BHARATH covers public safety and courts. She may be

reached at (949) 574-4226 or by e-mail at [email protected].