The court case against a one-time Louisiana television personality sought in that state for nearly four decades for allegedly molesting several children was delayed Friday for a little over a month.
A review hearing for Frank John Selas was postponed until April 1 by San Diego Superior Court Judge Margie Woods.
Lawyers are awaiting a warrant from Louisiana, where the 76-year-old Selas was indicted Thursday by a Rapides Parish, Louisiana, grand jury on two counts of aggravated rape, three counts of sexual battery and eight counts of felony indecent behavior with juveniles.
Selas was arrested in Bonita last month and has fought extradition to his former state.
Earlier this month, a judge ruled that Selas is the same man named in a 1979 arrest warrant.
In the 1970s, while hosting a children’s program aired by a north Louisiana TV station, Selas periodically invited youngsters between the ages of 5 and 11 to take part in free camping weekends and other outdoor activities, according to the U.S. Marshals Service.
During one such trip in a wilderness area near Valentine Lake at Kisatchie National Forest, Selas — who performed on his show as a magician dubbed “Mr. Wonder” — allegedly molested several of the attending children.
As investigators were preparing to arrest him, Selas left town in his family’s car, which turned up abandoned in Texas the following day, officials said.
Authorities believe Selas initially fled to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
In the early 1980s, he apparently returned to the United States and lived in a series of towns and cities, including Bonita; San Diego; Chicago; South Royalton, Vermont; Sheffield, Massachusetts; and his hometown of Darien, Connecticut.
—City News Service
