Pasadena Youth Camp Operator Sentenced for Sexual Assault, Kidnapping, Extortion

A 43-year-old youth boot camp operator in Pasadena was sentenced Friday to four years and four months in state prison after he pleaded no contest to sexual assault, kidnapping and extortion charges filed against him.

Kelvin Bernard McFarland, the founder of McFarland’s Family First Growth, was also ordered to register as a sex offender in cases resulting from charges involving a 14-year-old girl, the Los Angeles Times reported.

The first case charged McFarland of child abuse, kidnapping, false imprisonment, extortion and unlawful use of a badge; while the second one accused him of conducting sexual penetration by a foreign object, oral copulation of a person under 16, lewd act on a child and unlawful sexual intercourse.

Prosecutors said McFarland spotted the victim while he was driving in Pasadena in May 2011. McFarland stopped his vehicle, questioned and handcuffed the child, and then drove her to her relative’s home.

McFarland then showed the victim’s father a badge, ordered him to pay the suspect and enroll the child to McFarland’s program, prosecutors said.

McFarland is a former Marine officer who claimed that his military-strict ways of disciplining gang members and runaways would reform them.