7-year wait for justice: Korean-American girls molested by friend’s father after case dropped

Prosecutors have admitted that they had previously failed to indict a suspect in a case involving the sexual molestation of Korean-American girls at an elementary school in La Crescenta nearly a decade ago.

[Related Article: Korean-American girls molested by friend’s father during sleepover, discovered 10 years later]

In 2017, the family of the first known victim filed a report, but the District Attorney’s office decided not to prosecute.

The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office said on August 30 that the case was dropped at the time because of “insufficient evidence. “In 2017, a victim filed a report, and when the case came to our office, it was not charged due to insufficient evidence,” said Venusse Dunn, a public information officer for the District Attorney’s Office, in an email.

The prosecutor’s decision to pursue this case is believed to be the result of additional victims coming forward. “Recently, additional victims came forward and we found sufficient evidence to meet the criteria for prosecution,” Dunn said, adding that the case (Case No. 24DCF00274) involved three victims, including the first known victim who filed in 2017.

However, the District Attorney’s Office did not specify why they deemed the evidence insufficient in 2017 and what sufficient evidence led them to decide to proceed again. If the testimonies of additional victims were the reason for the decision to proceed, the prosecution’s decision not to charge the suspect at the time could have resulted in further victimization and mental suffering in the seven years since the first report was filed in 2017.

On August 21, the police arrested 54-year-old Stephan Nathanial Risdon for allegedly molesting three girls at an elementary school in La Crescenta between 2015 and 2016. Parents are outraged that the case has only surfaced after nearly a decade.

A Korean-American resident across the street from Risdon’s home told the Korea Daily that his arrest was quite strange.

“His wife seemed overly calm,” he said, “and his three teenage children or his barking dog were not home even though it was Wednesday evening.”

“I am sickened by the fact that he abused little girls,” he said, adding, “As a father and a Korean American, it’s unforgivable.”

Risdon is currently in custody for three counts of “lewd acts” on three of his daughter’s friends who came to his home during a sleepover in 2015 and 2016. The girls were in third and fourth grade at the time of the incident.

BY SUAH JANG, HOONSIK WOO [jang.suah@koreadaily.com]