Investigation of man accused of molesting boys expands to second county

SAN MATEO COUNTY, Calif. (KTVU) - The expanding molestation case against a Sonoma man has reached into San Mateo County.

Since the arrest of 68-year-old Paul Dwayne Kilgore on Sunday, more than two dozen calls have come in to police, people who say they are victims or know someone who is.

San Bruno Police are fielding a fair number of those tips, from alleged victims who are middle-aged now, but were children in the 1970's when Kilgore worked in youth programs.

"He was a year older than me, so I think he worked for the Rec a couple of years before I got there," Bill Frisbie told KTVU, at a crowded Friday night concert in the park at the San Bruno Recreation Center.

Generations of local families have relied on the Rec programs for their children.

If true, the San Bruno claims would show a pattern of behavior by Kilgore going back decades.

He is in custody now, only because of an alert gym member in Healdsburg last month.

That man saw and overheard Kilgore with two boys, ages ten and twelve, in the hot tub and locker room of the Park Point Health club, and reported it to a front desk clerk, who called police.

When quizzed, the boys said Kilgore often took them on outings, and their parents trusted him as a mentor.

A search of Kilgore's house, and a storage unit, backed up their claims of molestation.  

"We felt that he was grooming the kids that he would take out on activities," Healdsburg Police Sgt. Luis Rodriguez told KTVU, "so we found specific evidence that  corroborated that."

Frisbie admitted his memories of Kilgore are vague.

"I remember he was a basketball coach at the local Catholic school, and a rec leader here, but I don't remember why he moved away, some time in the seventies."

Police are still tracing Kilgore's work history, but by 2002, he was settled in Sonoma, and working as athletic director at the Boys and Girls Clubs of Sonoma Valley.

Three years ago, when extracurricular contact with kids was explicitly banned, he resigned.

But current management claims there were no hints of inappropriate behavior.  

"You never really know but we've been fortunate," CEO Robert Hughes told KTVU, "because there were no incidents that we're aware of, while he was here."

Police are looking into whether children Kilgore met at his job became alleged victims after-hours.

And now, they are fielding the claims from decades ago, from those who had contact with Kilgore from his time at Park and Rec, and may have gone on excursions with him. 

"Back then, it didn't seem so weird and I don't know why," mused Bill Frisbie, thinking back to a time when an outside field trip might not be viewed with suspicion.

"Now definitely, but back then, I don't know, it was a different time, different world."

Kilgore is in the Sonoma County Jail on one million dollars bail.

Any other potential victims are urged to contact their local police agency, so they can be added to the investigation.