SANTA ANA (CNS) - A 40-year-old BMX coach from Cypress was sentenced today to 185 years to life in prison for sexually assaulting three young boys and possessing and trading child pornography online.
Mandak Kohn Griffin, who was charged nearly 10 years ago, was convicted March 1 in a non-jury trial by Orange County Superior Court Judge Michael Cassidy.
The boys were 7, 8 and 9 at the time they were first sexually assaulted. The sexual assaults occurred from 2000 through 2003, but did not come to light until after investigators served a search warrant on Griffin's home and computers in January 2011, according to prosecutors.
One of the victims, who is now 26, testified about being molested when he was 8 years old.
“After I would try to go to sleep... he would ask if I wanted to touch him,'' he said, adding that Griffin “would grab my arm and say, ‘It's OK, we're friends.' I remember just being scared and just kind of letting it happen.''
One time during a sleepover, he said he “woke up to'' being sexually assaulted.
He recalled signing his last name as Griffin on a school assignment once, and when asked why, he said it was because he was told that he would be changing his last name to Griffin.
Deputy District Attorney Ann Fawaz told Cassidy in her closing argument how the evidence included “an entire packet of child porn and erotica'' on the defendant's laptop computer. She said Griffin initially “lied to investigators,'' accusing “other people of infecting his computer with child pornography.''
Investigators found the defendant's semen on the underwear of one of the victims, and Griffin told investigators that he used it during masturbation, the prosecutor said.
One victim was sexually assaulted 104 times over a two-year period, she said, adding that the victim “didn't like what was happening to him and asked him to stop, but it didn't matter.''
Another victim testified that he was instructed to touch himself while the defendant watched in a bathroom stall at a Carl's Jr. restaurant.
“All three victims fit the defendant's type -- 4 to 12 years old,'' Fawazs said. “Three separate victims... at three different periods of time by the same defendant... alleging the same types of acts, same type of MO, who don't know each other. There's overwhelming evidence in this case.''
Griffin's attorney, Cameron Talley, argued that each of the three boys initially denied they were assaulted. He did concede that his client had “disgusting'' images on his computers.
“This stuff, when you look at it is disgusting,'' Talley said, adding that is why he and his client opted for a non-jury trial.
“A jury would have seen that, folded their arms and said, ‘I'm done,''' Talley said. “This ugly stuff he's doing is not appealing. It makes me want to throw up and he likes it. He's masturbating to it, but that doesn't make him guilty of everything he's charged with no matter what.''
Talley said there were about “16,000 images of stuff he knew he shouldn't have,'' including about 250 images of one of the victims.
Fawaz said the victims were reluctant to testify out of shame, but Talley countered by telling the judge, “It's a hard call between reluctant and susceptibility.'' He argued that if his client were guilty of molesting the three boys, then he would have had images or videos of sexually assaulting them.
The judge ruled otherwise, convicting Griffin of five counts of oral copulation of a child 10 years or younger, three count of lewd acts with a minor, two counts of lewd acts with a minor younger than 14, and one count each of possession or control of child pornography, using a minor for the distribution of obscene matter, and sodomy with a child 10 years or younger.
Cassidy also found true sentencing enhancements or multiple victims and substantial sexual conduct.
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