Molester Suspected in 36,000 Abuse Cases

How could any system of justice let this happen? I have seen many failures in our legal and social service systems but this clearly sets the bar for reprehensible incompetence. This is shameful:

Despite being arrested at least nine times for molesting boys, Dean Arthur Schwartzmiller managed to avoid lengthy prison terms, coach youth football, move in with another convicted sex offender - and be named by authorities as one of the most prolific child molesters in history.

Schwartzmiller's criminal record began 35 years ago, but he never registered as a sex offender and spent just 12 years in prison. In his time on the outside, police suspect he molested children as many as 36,000 times in several states, Mexico and Brazil.

Wily, charismatic and "smarter than heck," is how James Kevan, one of his defense lawyers in the mid-1970s, described Schwartzmiller on Friday. "He could write up legal documents better than most lawyers."

Often defending himself in court, Schwartzmiller got two of his four convictions overturned, even though the Idaho Supreme Court called him a repeat offender who "uses his intelligence to take advantage of the weak and oppressed and those who are in need."

With Schwartzmiller, 63, being held without bail on charges involving two San Jose boys, police and the FBI are trying to retrace his movements over the last 30 years.

A search of Schwartzmiller's San Jose home turned up spiral-bound notebooks with notes on more than 36,000 encounters with children, in categories such as "Blond Boys,""Cute Boys" and "Boys who say no" - together with codes appearing to indicate how he abused them, San Jose Police Lt. Scott Cornfield said. Read More