Sex Offender Pleads Guilty to Kidnaping, Molesting Boy, 3

Registered sex offender Kenneth Kasten Rasmuson took prosecutors by surprise Thursday and pleaded guilty to kidnaping and molesting a 3-year-old Highland Park boy.

“It was his decision,” said Rasmuson’s attorney, Deputy Public Defender John Paul Ponist. “He just did not want to prolong (the case). . . . He felt it would just be harder on his family and himself, and also on the victim’s family.”

Rasmuson, who in 1982 was committed to Atascadero State Hospital as a mentally disordered sex offender, surrendered at a police station April 11, two days after the boy he was accused of harming was found wandering naked and dazed on a road in Agoura. The child had been playing on a sidewalk the night of April 8 when a man pulled up in a car and dragged him away.

At his arraignment April 14, the defendant, 25, pleaded not guilty to one count each of kidnaping and lewd conduct.

The prosecution said it will seek a maximum prison term of 22 years, including nine years for kidnaping in order to commit a sex act, when Rasmuson is sentenced May 21 in Los Angeles Superior Court.