She has much to say to Ron Kirk

Often we hear it's traumatizing for a child who's been molested to appear in court, with the alleged or convicted abuser sitting right there, and to talk about what happened.

Not necessarily.

Friday morning's sentencing of ex-Santa Rosa radio reporter Ron Kirk cannot come soon enough for 15-year-old Lindsey, who wasn't yet 12 when Kirk began touching her and showing her very adult images on his computer.

"He needs to know what this has done to me," Lindsey said.

I'm using a pseudonym for a thoughtful, disquieted girl who right now feels disregarded by the courthouse deal in which Kirk, 49, pleaded guilty to a single count of felony child abuse and 14 other felony counts were dismissed. The agreement eliminated the need for a trial.

"He took the easy way out, he took the plea," Lindsey said. She was born in Santa Rosa in 1992 and for years spent a lot of time at Kirk's house because he's the father of one of her friends.

"He was someone who I was supposed to be able to trust," she said.

THE CHARGES FILED against the former KSRO and KZST newsman following his arrest Oct. 23 accused him of touching Lindsey inappropriately "on almost a weekly basis" over three years.

A statement by the District Attorney's Office said Lindsey was still 11 -- and Kirk was 45 -- when he first had her sit on his lap while he used his home computer. "Over time," the D.A.'s statement said, "he began to tickle, caress and fondle the young girl, in time using obscene and sexually explicit language."

Police confronted Kirk after Lindsey told her mother last fall that she wanted to talk to a counselor, to whom she confided the abuse.

Kirk -- full name, Ron Kirk Kuhlmeyer -- initially pleaded not guilty to 15 charges. In March, he pleaded guilty to the most serious one: molesting a child at least three times within no less than three months. The trial was called off.

Lindsey said, "I wanted to testify but I never got the chance." With the sentencing that's set for Friday morning before Judge Elliot Daum, she said, "Now I've got the chance to say how this has affected me."

Kirk "really screwed me up emotionally," she said. "He messed up how I trust other people, and how I feel about myself."

"I can't sleep because it's always on my mind.

"It might be hard for me to make eye contact with him," she said. "But I really want him to see the emotion that's running through me as I read what I've written down."

IT MADE HER SICK, Lindsey said, to read in the newspaper that Kirk made the plea deal "because he believes he will be eligible for probation."

"I don't want him to get pro- bation," Lindsey said. "He needs to get the maximum sentence" of 16 years in prison.

Much less than that and it may appear to her that we as a culture are siding with Ron Kirk.

Chris Smith is at 521-5211 and chris.smith@pressdemocrat.com.