PASADENA — A former youth boot camp operator could face more than 12 years in prison after admitting to child molestation, kidnapping and extortion charges earlier this month, officials said.
Kelvin Bernard McFarland, 43, of Monrovia entered no contest pleas to all eight remaining charges against him, as well as one misdemeanor, at a July 1 appearance in Pasadena Superior court, Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office spokeswoman Jean Guccione said. One charge of forcible rape was dismissed by the court.
The pleas were “open,” meaning that McFarland had arranged no plea deal with regard to his sentence, Guccione said.
He could face more than 12 years in state prison when he returns to court for sentencing Jan. 21, district attorney’s officials said.
The charges stemmed from two separate cases.
In one of the cases, he was accused of molesting two then-14-year-old girls in 2004. It was not clear how McFarland met the victims.
In the other case, McFarland was accused of kidnapping and handcuffing a 14-year-old girl who was truant from school in 2011, then refusing to release her until her family paid him $100. He also brandished a badge resembling a police badge when approaching the girl, prosecutors said.
Following his arrest in March of 2012, McFarland pleaded not guilty to charges of lewd acts upon a child, unlawful sexual intercourse , oral copulation of a person under 16 years old, sexual penetration by a foreign object, forcible rape, kidnapping, child abuse, false imprisonment, extortion and unlawful use of a a badge.
The forcible rape charge was dismissed by Pasadena Superior Court Judge Suzette Clover on a defense motion contending insufficient evidence, Guccione said. McFarland pleaded “no contest” to all remaining charges.
McFarland formerly ran the Family First Growth Camp in Pasadena. He became the subject of controversy in October of 2011 after two videos depicting the treatment of troubled teen campers at a differed Pasadena-area boot camp program surfaces. McFarland and other instructors pictured children being urged to drink water until they vomited and a boy with a tire around his neck being berated by the instructors.
McFarland denied that he was in either video.