Hanna director pleads no-contest in sex assault case

Defendant Kevin Scott Thorpe pled no-contest and was found guilty Friday by the Honorable Dana Simonds of 11 sex offenses committed against four separate victims.|

Kevin Scott Thorpe, former clinical director at Hanna Boys Center, pled no-contest and was found guilty June 29 of eleven sex offenses committed against four separate victims over the course of several years.

Prosecutors said Thorpe, 40, engaged in oral sex, masturbation and improper conduct with three teenage clients.

District Attorney Jill Ravitch stated, “This disposition will guarantee a lengthy prison term for this sexual predator followed by a lifetime registration as a sex offender. We hope the resolution of this case will bring some closure to the victims.”

The sex abuse and molestation charges against Thorpe, a Rohnert Park resident and married father of two girls, involved four males, three of them former clients of the boys center and one that he knew outside of work. Thorpe had initially pleaded not guilty to the charges.

Before his arrest last June and subsequent firing, he had worked 14 years at the Hanna Boys Center, a residential facility affiliated with the Santa Rosa Diocese of the Catholic Church.

This case stems from an investigation that was prompted when a former student at the Hanna Boys Center came forward and disclosed sexual abuse committed by Thorpe, the student’s assigned caseworker at the school. The Sheriff’s Department conducted an investigation that corroborated the former student’s account, and led to the discovery of additional victims.

After Thorpe was charged, three adult men and one juvenile victim testified at a preliminary hearing in May before Sonoma County Superior Court Judge Dana Simonds.

During the hearing, the three men described being victimized by Thorpe during their teens while Thorpe was their caseworker at the 73-year-old institution for troubled youth. The fourth victim was called as a witness, but struggled to relate his interactions with Thorpe. The lead detective in the case later testified at the hearing about what that victim had previously reported to the Sheriff’s Office.

According to court testimony, two of the victims, who are brothers, came to Hanna Boys Center after living in an abusive home, in which both parents were eventually incarcerated, only to be taken in by relatives who couldn’t handle them.

According to the charges, the two brothers were abused by Thorpe beginning in 2007, when they were 14 and 15, and continuing until 2011 and 2010 respectively.

The abuse of a third boy at Hanna Boys Center began in 2007 when he was 14, according to the court records, and resulted in 15 criminal acts.

Prosecutors say the fourth youth, now 17, was not a Hanna Boys Center resident but was groomed by Thorpe, who furnished him marijuana and molested him five times in 2016 and 2017, including just days before Thorpe’s June 10 arrest, according to court testimony and records.

During the hearing, Simonds said that even if Thorpe never directly threatened the victims in the case, evidence presented by prosecutors indicated he exploited the youths’ vulnerable situations, taking advantage of their fear of being taken out of the Hanna program if they refused his advances.

Following the hearing, Thorpe reached a plea agreement with the District Attorney’s Office in which he pled no-contest and was found guilty of five counts of unlawful oral copulation accomplished by duress, five counts of unlawful oral copulation with a minor, and one count of annoying or molesting a child. Five of those convictions are “strikes” under California’s three strikes law. Per the terms of the plea agreement, Thorpe will be sentenced to 21 years in state prison. Thorpe will be required to register as a sex offender pursuant to Penal Code section 290 upon his release. He will also be subject to consideration for a civil commitment as a sexually violent predator at the completion of his prison term.

The case was prosecuted by Deputy District Attorney Andrew Lukas. Sgt. Greg Piccinini of the Sheriff’s Office headed the investigation.

Email Lorna at lorna.sheridan@sonomanews.com.

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