Jurors in abuse case to be picked

By Tracy Manzer

LONG BEACH - Jury selection is scheduled to begin Monday in the sex-abuse case of the former head of the state's largest mental health facility.

Claude Edward Foulk Jr. is charged with 35 felony counts of sex abuse that authorities say he inflicted on his adopted son for more than a decade.

The charge against Foulk includes 22 counts of forcible oral copulation, 11 counts of sodomy by use of force and two counts of forcible lewd act on a child, all pertaining to Jonathan F., one of Foulk's two adopted sons.

Foulk - the former head of Napa State Hospital - was ordered last April to stand trial following testimony from his adopted son, now 26, who testified he was repeatedly sexually abused by Foulk after he was taken in at the age of 9.

Deputy District Attorney Danette Gomez said Foulk used manipulation and threats along with gifts to keep Jonathan F. quiet and complacent throughout the 10 years of alleged abuse.

Foulk's privately retained defense attorney, Richard Poland, said his client denies all the accusations.

Foulk, who was married briefly in the 1970s and had no biological children, was arrested in February in Napa and immediately fired from his post at the hospital.

Though jury selection is slated to begin Monday, court staff say it could take one to two weeks before a full jury is seated and opening statements can begin.

Foulk has remained in custody at the Men's Central Jail in downtown Los

Angeles in lieu of $3.5 million bail since his February 2010, arrest.