Former SLO County deputy not guilty of molestation after testimony led to change in charges
A former San Luis Obispo County correctional deputy did not molest children, a jury decided on Oct. 21, after witness testimony led to a change in the charges.
James Storton, a 65-year-old from Arroyo Grande, was charged with eight felony counts of committing lewd acts with a child under 14 years old, involving two alleged victims — including two counts alleging he touched their vaginas — and a ninth count of lewd acts on a child who was 15 years old at the time of the alleged crimes in May 2021, according to the original criminal complaint filed by the District Attorney’s Office.
Storton was a correctional deputy with the San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Office from 1980 to 2009, when he retired, according to a press release from the time. If found guilty of all of the crimes, he faced life in prison.
However, midway through the trial, on Oct. 18, the District Attorney’s Office filed an amended complaint, changing the allegation in the two charges that alleged Storton touched the minors’ vaginas to touching of their “upper pubic area.”
That’s because it came out in witness testimony of the alleged survivors that they were touched on the stomach and not their genitals, Patrick Fisher, Storton’s attorney, told The Tribune.
Fisher said the alleged touching could have been accidental, innocent or misunderstood. He said the District Attorney’s Office did not have enough evidence against his client to begin with and noted the prosecution’s case was shorter than that of the defense.
The interviews of the alleged survivors were inadequate, Fisher said, and he hopes the not-guilty verdict can help clear Storton’s name in the community.
“We believe that it occurred and we believed that it could be proved beyond a reasonable doubt, but that’s the process,” San Luis Obispo County Assistant District Attorney Eric Dobroth told The Tribune. “Some of the most sensitive and most difficult cases we handle are child sexual abuse cases. Sometimes this is what happens — that’s why the filing rates on these types of cases are usually low.”
Dobroth noted that at the end of the day, there were still young teens who had “at least something traumatizing” happen to them, whether or not the jury believed it beyond a reasonable doubt.
This story was originally published October 28, 2022 at 1:28 PM.
