A Nightmare Resurfaces to Haunt Molestation Victim

PLACENTIA â€”  An old nightmare is revisiting David DeWyke. The fear and humiliation that had tormented his childhood have resurfaced, just as those bitter memories were beginning to fade.

Two months ago, DeWyke, 26, found himself lying awake at night again, listening to strange noises in the house and backyard.

He was certain that the man who years ago had abused his trust was outside the bedroom window, ready to break in and haul him away. DeWyke would tell his wife, J.J., that he feared that Sidney Landau, a twice-convicted child molester now free, was prowling outside, peeping through the window.

During the day, DeWyke would scan crowds for Landau, the man who molested him when he was 10, and look over his shoulder whenever he heard approaching footsteps. More disturbingly, the thought of suicide, dormant for years, had returned, he said.

“It was like I was reliving the nightmare all over again,� DeWyke said in an interview. “I was very, very scared.�

DeWyke said the nightmare began in January when, in a cruel twist of fate, he learned that the house he and his wife had purchased a week earlier was only blocks away from where Landau, 57, was living. Landau had been released from state prison in November and had moved in with friends, unnoticed at first, in a quiet Placentia neighborhood after serving eight years for his second conviction, for molesting an 8-year-old boy.

DeWyke and his wife, busy unpacking in their new home, were unaware of the news reports in early January about the protests from Placentia residents, who learned from police officials that a convicted child molester was living in their midst.

The police, under Megan’s Law, began notifying residents and school administrators of Landau’s presence in the neighborhood. DeWyke’s stepmother saw news reports of the controversy and called DeWyke. (DeWyke then agreed to tell his story to Times staff writer H.G. Reza, who is his wife’s uncle. A second Times reporter was present during the interview.)

“We knew he was getting out in November, but we never thought he would be in our city,� DeWyke said. “I’m scared. I can’t explain it. My fear would be that he has revenge for me, for throwing him in jail and causing grief in his life.�

Lynda Ward, a deputy regional administrator of parole for the state Department of Corrections, said Tuesday that state officials had been unaware of the presence of one of Landau’s victims in his new Placentia neighborhood.

Under state law, Landau’s victims are entitled to ask that he not live within 35 miles of their homes, Ward said. She said parole officials had received no such request.

DeWyke said he knew of that provision of the law but did not seek to restrain Landau’s living arrangements because he feared retaliation.

Landau is now living in a second Placentia neighborhood, in an apartment complex on East Yorba Linda Boulevard minutes away from DeWyke’s home. On Saturday, police distributed fliers in the area notifying residents that Landau lived nearby. Afterward, the apartment managers served Landau with a 30-day notice to move out.

But his attorney, T. Matthew Phillips, said Landau “absolutely� would not leave.

“He has to live somewhere,� the lawyer said. “Might as well be here.�

Phillips noted that Landau would be violating his parole if he deliberately contacted a victim.

It was DeWyke’s testimony that led to Landau’s first conviction in 1982 on three counts of sexually molesting him. DeWyke was 12 at the time of the trial, and he was so humiliated by the testimony he was required to give that several times he asked the judge to order his parents outside the courtroom while he testified.

“I was too embarrassed,� DeWyke said. “To this day, I still haven’t told everything.�

Although Landau was sentenced to 11 years and eight months in prison for molesting DeWyke, he was released after serving two years. DeWyke said he felt betrayed by the criminal justice system.

“We thought he was going to jail for a long time. When he got released, my mom and dad were separated. My little brother and sister and I felt like there was nobody there to protect us, and Landau was coming back for revenge because I helped send him to prison,� DeWyke said.

In 1987, Landau was arrested by Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies and charged with performing a lewd act on a boy under 14, according to police and court records. That charge was dismissed. However, he was convicted in 1988 of molesting an 8-year-old Anaheim boy and served eight years in prison.

Landau’s crimes traumatized him for years, DeWyke said. But now he wants to send a message to the man who robbed him of his youth, he said. He still feels hurt and pain, but that has not stopped him from going on with his life and succeeding, he added. DeWyke and his wife own a cellular phone and pager business.

Recently, DeWyke said he has gained strength and comfort from the angry objections raised by Placentia residents to Landau’s presence. The January protests forced Landau to move from the house of friends to an apartment building, located nearly a mile from DeWyke’s house, where parents and enraged tenants have staged demonstrations to get him evicted.

The anger that Placentia residents have directed at Landau is a sign that people outside of his family also care for him and other child molestation victims, DeWyke said.

“It makes me feel so good inside that a whole community is mad at this guy for what he did to me and others,� he said. “It makes me feel so good that people are on my side. It’s not just my family supporting me now.�