Ex-GOP activist faces new molestation charges

From The Orange County Register, 9/14/07:

http://www.ocregister.com/news/nielsen-boy-county-1845698-lockhart-orange

Ex-GOP activist faces new molestation charges

Jeffrey Ray Nielsen, a former aide to Rep. Dana Rohrabacher,

R-Huntington Beach, abused the boy at his Fountain Valley home,

prosecutors say.

By RACHANEE SRISAVASDI

A former aide to an Orange County congressman who made headlines when

he was accused of molesting a 14-year-old boy faces new accusations of

abusing a second youth.

Jeffrey Ray Nielsen, 36, was charged Thursday with ten felony counts

of molestation for molesting a 13-year-old boy at his Fountain Valley

home from May 1 to Sept. 22, 1994, Deputy District Attorney Matt

Lockhart said.

Nielsen is a lawyer who once was a legislative aide in Washington D.C.

to Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Huntington Beach).

He also worked on an Assembly campaign of Scott Baugh, now the

Republican Party chairman in Orange County.

Nielsen is awaiting a re-trial on charges that he molested another

boy, age 14, in 2003.

He allegedly met that youth through an Internet chat room for gay men.

In March, a jury deadlocked on whether to convict Nielsen of six

felonies for allegedly seducing the boy.

His defense attorney, Paul Meyer, argued his client was counseling the

teenager, who told Nielsen he was troubled because he was gay.

On Friday, Neilsen appeared at Harbor Justice Center in Newport Beach

for a court hearing in the 2003 case.

The re-trial was pushed back to Sept. 28.

Prosecutors found out about the second youth while investigating the

first case, Lockhart said.

Nielsen knew the boy when he used to live in the Washington D.C.-area

and befriended the boy's family, who lived in Virginia, he said.

Nielsen and the boy began a sexual relationship in Virginia, which

continued in Orange County when the boy visited Nielsen at his house,

Lockhart said.

County prosecutors do not have the jurisdiction to charge the alleged

crimes in Virginia, he added.

Nielsen will be arraigned on the new charges on Oct. 12.

Meyer declined to comment.

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My goodness

Harry