Ex-Sonoma Boys and Girls Club employee guilty of child molestation

A former Sonoma Valley Boys and Girls Club employee was found guilty Tuesday of molesting three boys he befriended through the organization over a period of six years during trips to pools, an arcade and his own house.

Paul “Dwayne” Kilgore, 70, now faces up to 75 years in state prison when he is sentenced May 2 for six felony crimes against the boys, which one child testified began when he was 6 years old. Kilgore was athletic director at the club for a decade before he voluntarily resigned in 2013 after the club barred staff from interacting with club members outside of club hours or off campus.

Kilgore sat unmoving in a green button-down shirt as the clerk read the verdict. His attorney, public defender Lynette Brown, declined to comment on his conviction outside the courtroom.

Kilgore used his position as athletic director for the organization to establish connections with the boys, according to prosecutor Javier Vaca. The boys are now 16, 15 and 13 years old and include a pair of brothers.

Cary Dacy, executive director of the Sonoma Valley Boys and Girls Club, said in an email the organization “supports law enforcement’s protection of our children, and we are glad justice has been done in this case.”

The jury reached unanimous verdicts on six charges against Kilgore, including felony molestation of children younger than 14 between 2010 and 2016.

The jurors couldn’t reach unanimous agreement on a seventh felony molestation charge stemming from an incident observed Aug. 27, 2016, at Parkpoint Health Club in Healdsburg that ultimately led to Kilgore’s arrest and launched the criminal investigation.

Another member of the club told police he saw Kilgore inappropriately touching and speaking with two boys, 11 and 12 years old at the time, in a club locker room.

Outside the courtroom Tuesday, a juror said she believed Kilgore’s behavior was inappropriate toward the children but their testimonies at times were unclear, making it difficult to find unanimous agreement on the single charge stemming from that August day at the health club.

Judge Robert LaForge declared a mistrial on that one charge of lewd and lascivious acts against a child younger than 14.

The juror, who declined to give her name, said that Kilgore’s sexual behavior toward the children seemed incongruous with his appearance as a feeble, kind-faced elderly man.

“I kept thinking, ‘What is in this man’s head? Where are his boundaries?’?” the 65-year-old Sonoma resident said.

You can reach Staff Writer Julie Johnson at 707-521-5220 or julie.johnson@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @jjpressdem.