Multiple Victims - Claude Edward Foulk - Long Beach/Napa CA

The child molestation case against the fired head of Napa State Hospital began with a chance meeting last September.A
man, who as a boy in the early 1970s lived a few doors from Claude
Edward Foulk in Long Beach, was visiting the hospital as part of his
job as a vendor. He turned the corner of a hallway and made eye contact
with Foulk, who ran the 1,200-patient facility that houses mentally ill
criminals. The encounter triggered memories of alleged abuse by Foulk nearly
four decades ago, his attorney told The Times. The man told his wife
and went to Long Beach police, who began investigating. On
Friday, the Los Angeles County district attorney's office filed court
documents providing details about Foulk's alleged history of
molestation. Authorities alleged that Foulk molested at least five
victims but are now looking at eight additional allegations that date
to 1965. Foulk pleaded not guilty Friday to 35 felony counts
involving his adopted son. A judge rejected a defense attorney's
request to reduce Foulk's bail from $3.5 million to $500,000 after a
prosecutor revealed the growing number of allegations. His
attorney, Jon Artz, declined to discuss the charges specifically but
warned against a rush to judgment until all the facts are in.According to court records, Foulk allegedly molested a foster child in
his care from 1973 to 1985. In 1974, prosecutors allege, Foulk molested
a friend of the foster child, who as an adult went to police last
September after the encounter in the Napa hospital. In 1977,
Foulk allegedly molested a friend of a second foster child living at
his home in Long Beach. Prosecutors allege that he masturbated in front
of two children in the early 1990s, asking the minors to participate. All these cases fell before the statute of limitations, so prosecutors said they could not file charges.Foulk is being prosecuted for alleged molestations of his son, which
began in 1992 and continued through 2003, according to charges.During these years, Foulk worked as a mental health professional at
several facilities in Southern California, eventually landing the top
job at Napa State Hospital. The attorney for the man who first
alerted police praised Long Beach detectives for taking the accusations
seriously and conducting an exhaustive investigation. "I give
the Long Beach police a huge amount of the credit," attorney John C.
Manly said. "They went after this case even though it was decades ago."Manly said that his client, now 45, had repressed memories of the
alleged molestation and that seeing Foulk brought the memories back.
"It all came back to him," he said. "It was an emotional gunshot."The
man decided to call police, meeting with detectives several times and
giving them names of potential victims. "He's really proud," Manly said.