Carney Molested Her Many Times, Girl Testifies

LANCASTER — A girl for whom Kevin Carney acted as a father figure testified Wednesday that the former sheriff’s sergeant molested her numerous times over eight or nine years, mostly in his Lancaster office and at her home, and gave her alcohol before sexually assaulting her.

The girl, now 15, said she first met Carney when she was 5 or 6 and remembered him as someone who was friendly and nice.

“He’d take me to Baskin-Robbins. He took me to Toys “R” Us. He took me to the movies,” she said.

With an even tone of voice, the girl testified that Carney first molested her less than a month after they met. As she testified, she glanced at the defendant, who is also a former Palmdale city councilman and school board president. She was accompanied in court by her therapist.

Carney, 49, looked ashen.

He is charged with 16 counts of molestation-related offenses involving four girls. His defense attorney, Milton Grimes, contends the victims are not credible and the allegations may have been politically motivated because they arose just before his election to Palmdale City Council.

Carney, who faces a maximum punishment of multiple life sentences, has resigned his seat. He is free on $500,000 bail.

On Wednesday, the girl testified that she was too scared to tell her single mother about the molestations, which occurred about “two or three times a month,” sometimes in the same office where Carney worked as a supervisor for the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department’s child abuse unit.