The recent arrest of a clinical director at the Hanna Boys Center in Sonoma on child sex charges has raised questions about whether any of the thousands of youth who lived at the facility over the past 14 years may have also been victims of sexual abuse.
Kevin Scott Thorpe, 39, of Rohnert Park, has been accused of molesting a male student between 2009
and 2010 at the Catholic school and residential treatment center for at-risk youth. Thorpe faces three
felony counts of oral copulation by force that allegedly took place over the one-year period.
Thorpe’s arrest on child-sex charges is the second at Hanna Boys Center to take place in six months.
Angelica Malinski was arrested in the fall for alleged unlawful sexual intercourse with a 17-year- old boy
who lived at the facility where the then 22-year- old worked.
The facility, which houses roughly 100 students, was founded in 1945 with a mission to help educate
and motivate young people through faith and treatment programs, according to its website.
Thorpe replaced the center’s clinical director Timothy Norman about six months ago after he was fired
for filing complaints about bullying at the center that went unchecked. These are allegations that the
Catholic school and residence denies. Norman has a $2.7 million whistleblower lawsuit against the
Hanna Boys Center.
Thorpe was first hired at Hanna Boys Center 14 years ago as a youth counselor. He later became
licensed as a counselor and in his most recent position as director supervised other staff counselors and
interns as well as guided the treatment plans for all students at the facility. He is also a youth minister at
the a local church in Sonoma Valley. He has since been placed on administrative leave and remains in jail with a $300,000 bail.
Thorpe, who lives in Rohnert Park with his wife and family, faces up to 24 years in prison since the
former student who accused him came forward on June 1. The student, who lived at the Hanna Boys
Center as a teen, told police about how Thorpe allegedly molested him. Now 23 years old, the victim
didn’t want other young people to go through what he went through. The young man told investigators
that Thorpe molested him both on campus and at his home which was in Sonoma at the time.
In the wake of Thorpe’s arrest, with this being the second child-sex arrest in six months, the Hanna Boys
Center has begun training on personal and professional boundaries for its employees. The center’s
executive director, Brian Farragher told news reporters Thorpe’s arrest has prompted the facility to put
more safeguards into place and they will instruct employees on how to identify predatory behavior and
acts of grooming. Staff at Hanna Boys Center has also been reaching out to families of each boy and
alumni who were on Thorpe’s caseload to ask them to speak to their children and alert law enforcement
if there has been any contact with him.
The boys who have live at the facility come from all over California, but roughly half are from Sonoma
County and only 3 percent from outside of California, according to the center’s 2016 annual report. The
majority of the income to operate the facility comes from donations with 98 percent of the students
paying $500 or less to attend annually.
This “turning a blind eye” approach has to be stopped. It appears that the Hanna Boys Center could have
protected these boys. Johnson Attorneys Group is dedicated to fight and bring justice to those
responsible for such crimes.
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