Laguna Niguel man gets 170 years for molesting 3 girls

A 56-year-old Laguna Niguel man was sentenced Friday to 170 years to life in prison for molesting girls when they were 10 and 11 years old.

Glen Thomas Kauffman was convicted Oct. 15 of six counts of lewd acts with a minor younger than 14 and three counts of oral copulation or sexual penetration of a child 10 years or younger.

Kauffman was convicted of molesting three girls. Evidence concerning what authorites say was a fourth molestation was used in the trial as well.

The sexual assaults spanned six years and date back to 2013, when he molested a girl who was a neighbor, according to Deputy District Attorney Courtney Thom.

Kauffman met the other three victims through his daughter, as well as in his volunteer work helping coach a youth softball league in Laguna Niguel, Thom said.

He had a financial firm that served top U.S. brands and was a member of the UC Irvine Alumni Association’s Board of Directors.

“This person is a sociopath, a serial child predator,” the father of two victims said. “There is no remorse. He is only sorry there’s consequences.”

One of the girls said she felt “humiliated” and accused him of “using his own daughter to get to other children.”

“I’m hurt, broken and in pain,” she told Orange County Superior Court Judge Robert A. Knox. “I will be forever traumatized. … You know what you did to me … and you don’t even care.”

Another of the victims said she felt guilty she didn’t protect her sibling.

“I’ve felt a tremendous amount of guilt and sadness for this,” she said. “I was a normal, happy kid before I met you.”

Thom advocated for the maximum sentence of 170 years to life.

“Every act he did on these four girls requires the maximum sentence,” Thom told Knox.

Thom noted the defendant has shown “zero responsibility” for his crimes during and after the trial.

Kauffman told the judge, “I am a sinner, no doubt… But the jury got it wrong. Something’s broken.”

He said the jury “chose to accept salacious stories rather than cold, sober facts.”

He admitted molesting two of the girls in a covert phone call monitored by sheriff’s deputies and while being questioned by investigators, but said they were “false confessions” made under duress as he grieved the death of his wife and experienced stress from his business.

Kauffman’s attorney, Leonard Levine, argued for a 25-years-to-life sentence.

Knox said the defendant “caused serious harm to four young victims and their families… and his own children, who now must suffer.”