How cops closed in on child molester

When Dean Schwartzmiller and Frederick Everts met in a county jail in Portland, Ore., they became fast friends. And why not? They had a lot in common -- long rap sheets for child molestation and a preference for young boys.

Their friendship continued to grow when they shared time in state prison for their separate sexual offenses. Then, about two years ago, Schwartzmiller was released and moved to San Jose. He filled his Vineyard Drive home with toys, video games, a foosball table and other enticements for boys, police records show. And he waited for his buddy Everts to join him.

When he was released, Everts illegally skipped his parole and moved in with Schwartzmiller, who had been busy befriending two boys, 12-year-old cousins.

Now, Schwartzmiller and Everts are in a Santa Clara County jail on seven felony counts each for sexual crimes. Both are also wanted on warrants out of Oregon.

Of the two, though, it is Schwartzmiller who may turn out to be one of the country's most prolific child molesters.

Investigators found notebooks filled with more than 36,000 entries, logging categories such as boys who cried, boys who said no, blond boys -- and graphic sexual details.

It was ``keeping score,'' Everts said of his friend's logs. Schwartzmiller thought he was dying, and his ``manuscript was his parting story,'' police say Everts told them.

While staggering in magnitude, keeping books -- or souvenirs of exploits -- fits the profile of many child molesters, said Robert Dillon, a San Jose police detective with the Child Exploitation Detail and the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force.

``Child sexual predators tend to keep material, writings, anything that can remind them of the act themselves or the victim,'' Dillon said. ``They tend to hang on to things, whether you want to call it a trophy or a memento of the occasion.''

Deciphering writings

Investigators are still puzzling over the journals. Steven Fein, the Santa Clara County prosecutor on the case, said the total number of victims could total hundreds or thousands. ``We just don't know for sure,'' he said Friday.

Kathleen Kendall-Tackett, a research associate at the Crimes Against Children Research Center, was among many taken aback by the enormity of Schwartzmiller's alleged trail of victims.

``This is the first time I've heard of anything this big,'' she said Friday. ``I can't imagine how he's managed to fly under the radar for so long.''

He did have some good fortune.

Michael McShane, Schwartzmiller's lead attorney in his 1993 sodomy case in Oregon, recalls him as ``a fixated individual'' whom he will never forget.

``The guy has had better luck than anybody I know in the criminal justice system,'' he said. ``The prosecutor has had a very difficult time getting cases to stick against him.''

For example, this is what happened in an Idaho case:

In 1975, the then 34-year-old Schwartzmiller was arrested on a charge of lewd and lascivious conduct with a minor under 16 years old.

After a jury convicted him in 1976, the judge sentenced him to eight years in prison. Schwartzmiller's appeal went to the Idaho Supreme Court, which ordered a new trial in 1978. The justices found that the victim lied during a preliminary examination about being forced by Schwartzmiller to commit a sex act, when in fact he consented. Although consent is not a defense, the justices ruled that the rest of the boy's testimony was tainted.

Charge dismissed

After Schwartzmiller served 18 months on the sentence, the state dismissed the charge.

Schwartzmiller went free in February 1978 and by that fall, according to Idaho court records, he was back preying on boys in Idaho. And he soon was back in prison after being convicted of abusing boys he befriended while hanging out at a restaurant and junior high school parking lot near his home.

According to the Idaho Statesman newspaper, he served about six years of a 25-year sentence and was a chief plaintiff in a string of successful prison-overcrowding lawsuits.

Now San Jose police have picked up the thread of his crimes, which they say cover more than 30 years in several states and possibly Mexico and Brazil. Schwartzmiller speaks both Spanish and Portuguese.

In early 2002, police records say, Schwartzmiller, who did plaster and stucco work, hired the father of one of the alleged victims as a day worker. The men became friends. Schwartzmiller hired the boy and another child to come clean his pool and work in his yard, paying them $40 for the effort. The boys played board games, video games and sports with Schwartzmiller, a court document says.

Schwartzmiller also hired the mother of one the boys to clean his home. People who knew him called him kindly, paternal, trusted, court records show.

Boys befriended

Eventually, Schwartzmiller and Everts took the boys on trips to Santa Cruz, on hikes, to the lake. They bought the boys cell phones, clothes, shoes and toys. Schwartzmiller even paid to enroll the mainly Spanish-speaking boy in private school to improve his English.

Everts had sex with one of the boys, police say he told them. He snapped sexually explicit pictures of him. Finally, the boy told Everts it was wrong ``for two males to be together,'' a police report says. And the boy wanted no more sexual touching.

The report suggests the men had two more victims, although they are not reflected in the charges against them. Schwartzmiller also tried to have sex with the boy who resisted Everts. He offered the boy $50 and a car. The boy ``didn't want to but he was excited that he was going to get the car and the money,'' a police report says.

With the consent of the boys parents, they began to have ``sleepovers'' at the men's house. Sometimes, Schwartzmiller allegedly molested the boys as they slept in sleeping bags.

The men's downfall was a hit-and-run collision, after which Schwartzmiller apparently left the scene. On May 18, tips led officers to the home of the men. Schwartzmiller was away; Everts first gave a phony name but finally fessed up -- and the cops soon learned he was wanted in Oregon.

Everts was arrested, and Schwartzmiller feared the cops were bearing down on him. He called one of the boys he is now accused of molesting, instructing him to go to the home he and Everts shared to remove and destroy paperwork and CD computer files. He and his sister did, and she found a paper saying Schwartzmiller was wanted by the FBI.

Alarmed, the family turned it over to the police.