Police Investigate Charges 3 Girls Were Molested at Unlicensed Day-Care Home

Police are investigating allegations that three girls--ages 3, 4 and 8--were sexually molested at an unlicensed child-care operation in Tustin by the operator’s husband and 21-year-old son, investigators said Thursday.

Neither suspect has been interviewed or arrested, but officers went to the suspects’ home Wednesday evening and “requested” that day-care operations there cease until a license is obtained, said Acting Tustin Police Chief Fred Wakefield. The operator agreed, he said.

Operator Not Suspected

Patricia Smith, 48, who provided day care to the three girls and about three other children at her home in the 2100 block of Apple Tree Drive, is not considered a suspect, Lt. Frank Semelsberger said. Jeff Smith, 21, and his father, Oliver Smith, 47, are the focus of the investigation, Semelsberger said.

Reached at his home Thursday night, Oliver Smith said, “The allegations are not true” and that they have shaken and shocked the whole family. He declined further comment.

Semelsberger said that neither Jeff Smith nor Oliver Smith has any record of child abuse or molestation. One of the Smiths’ neighbors said Patricia Smith, who moved into the house a year ago, is “just great with the kids” and that Oliver Smith is “a great guy.”

Police said they believe about six children were being cared for at the Smiths’ home, but there are as many as two dozen who may have been under Patricia Smith’s care since 1985. Officers said they have already contacted parents of those children who were most currently under Smith’s care.

“We have . . . in the neighborhood of 18 to 20 total kids that we know of that have ever stayed there,” Semelsberger said. “We’ve talked to nine or 10 kids, or tried to. Some are very, very young--three or four are less than a year old--and the parents of those infants have indicated no problems.

“At least one parent had two youngsters in the home and they really don’t want to have us interview their kids, though they talked to (their children) and they denied anything (was) going on.”

Officers expect to interview all of the parents and children who were under Smith’s care and then present the results of their investigation Tuesday to the district attorney’s office, which will decide whether charges should be filed.

3 Detectives Working Case

Three detectives are working on the case full time, police said.

The father of one of the three alleged victims prompted the police investigation earlier this week when he reported that his daughter had said “something that led him to believe she may have been molested,” Semelsberger said Thursday.

Medical examinations of the three girls revealed physical evidence that the two youngest had been molested, Semelsberger said. “There were indications of trauma to support their claims,” he added.

In the course of checking the father’s report, Wakefield said, officers discovered that Smith had no day-care license for her home and thus was in violation of the state Health and Safety Code.

That law requires that both the operator and the facility where the care will be provided be licensed. In this case, only Smith herself was licensed, although another home at which she provided child care--just a few blocks away--had been licensed through 1985, according to police and social services officials.

Smith has a clean record with state officials, according to police and Fred Miller, deputy director of licensing for the California Department of Social Services.

At 5 p.m. Wednesday, Semelsberger said, officers arrived at the Smith home “and advised the daughter of Patricia Smith that their child day-care home did not have a current valid license. We requested that they cease any further day-care activity until they have been cleared by the state to resume operations and a proper license is issued.”