Up to 248 Years in Prison for Ex-Napa State Chief's Sex Abuse Conviction

Former executive director Claude Edward Foulk has been found guilty of 31 out of 35 counts of lewd and lascivious acts on his adopted son, a Long Beach Superior Court clerk said Thursday afternoon.

Foulk was convicted of the charges in a verdict that was read at about 4 p.m., according to the clerk of the court of Judge James Pierce. He had been charged with the 35 counts in connection with the molestation of his adopted son over a 12-year period starting in 1992, when the boy was 9 years old.

The jury found Foulk not guilty of two counts of sodomy by use of force and two counts of forcible oral copulation, but convicted him of the 31 other charges.

Foulk, who served as executive director between 2007 and the time of his arrest, was taken into custody at the Napa hospital on Feb. 24, 2010. He was held to answer to the charges in April.

The Associated Press reported that prosecutors alleged that 11 other men came forward with claims Foulk also abused them when they were minors, with some of the claims going as far back as 1965. Due to a statute of limitations, Foulk could only be prosecuted on claims by his son.

Sentencing in the case is scheduled for Feb. 23, according to the court clerk. The Associated Press is reporting Foulk faces nearly 250 years in prison.

By Bay City News Service