By Jason Green | The Mercury News
SAN MATEO COUNTY – A judge this week sentenced a 62-year-old Menlo Park man to 165 years to life in prison for molesting multiple children over a 30-year period, prosecutors said.
On May 10, a jury found Randolph Michael Haldeman guilty of two counts of oral copulation by use of drugs, one count of sodomy, five counts of child molestation, five counts of forcible lewd act with a child and one count of felony contact with a child for a lewd act, according to the San Mateo County District Attorney’s Office.
Prosecutors said jurors deadlocked on two counts of child molestation, which were dismissed at the request of prosecutors, and returned not guilty verdicts on two counts of felony contact with a child for a lewd act.
On Tuesday, Judge Elizabeth Lee ordered Haldeman to serve 11 separate 15 years to life in prison sentences, as well as register as a sex offender and pay nearly $9,500 in restitution to the victims, according to the district attorney’s office. Haldeman, who was in custody on $5 million bail, has 1,050 days credit for time served.
Prosecutors said Haldeman befriended children and their families through the Ladera Recreation Center in Portola Valley, where he worked as a photographer for more than 20 years, and the Big Brothers program.
Over the course of three decades, Haldeman molested nine children at his home in Menlo Park, the recreation center’s swimming pool and St. Denis Church in Menlo Park, according to the district attorney’s office.
The San Mateo County Sheriff’s Office launched an investigation when one of the victims came forward in 2019.
At the time, a spokesperson for the sheriff’s office said one victim told detectives the assaults began in 1987 when he was 8 years old. Another victim reported he was assaulted as recently as 2015. Those victims, along with a third, said they were repeatedly sexually assaulted until they were as old as 13, according to the spokesperson.
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