Trial awaits man accused of sexually abusing boys

Newport Beach police feared a shootout in 2012 when they moved in to arrest a church volunteer they suspected of raping and molesting seven boys for more than a decade.

Christopher McKenzie kept heavy-duty off-roading tires on his second-floor patio instead of storing them in the roomy garage of his Costa Mesa apartment, according to a court document filed by police. The tires, they wrote, would make ideal cover in case of a firefight, and a half-dozen handguns and rifles inside the apartment meant McKenzie would be well-armed.

At least one of McKenzie’s alleged victims had told officers that the 48-year-old, 6-foot-2, 245-pound Army veteran would “shoot it out with police” and “go down in flames,” according to court documents.

McKenzie “was prepared to engage [officers] violently to prevent incarceration, seizure of his weapons and other types of what he perceived to be government intrusion or invasion of his life,” police wrote.

Soon, however, details of McKenzie’s life will be laid bare in court.

Newport Beach police decided to avoid McKenzie’s home and arrested him as he left a Home Depot store on Nov. 30, 2012, according to legal filings.

He has been behind bars since with bail set at $3 million. McKenzie is expected to stand trial in the next few weeks on 24 felony charges related to child pornography and sexual abuse.

The Orange County district attorney’s office alleges that McKenzie preyed on boys he met through his neighbors, his job and his church.

Depending on when prosecutors secure a visa for a key witness who lives out of the country, jury selection could begin as soon as Tuesday or be delayed until August.

McKenzie has pleaded not guilty to all 24 counts.

He walked away from a jailhouse interview with the Daily Pilot shortly after his arrest.

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Teen tells of molestation

Police said they learned of McKenzie only nine days before his arrest. A teenager walked into the Newport Beach Police Department to tell them something that the boy had recently revealed to a therapist. Officials described it in an arrest warrant for McKenzie.

The teen reportedly told of two years of abuse he suffered starting in 2005.

McKenzie, a self-employed pool cleaner, offered the then-10-year-old $40 a day to help him change underwater light bulbs on his rounds, the teen said. After each workday, the boy said, McKenzie told him to shower away any leftover chlorine and then fondled him as he rinsed.

In a court hearing last year, the teen said McKenzie warned him not to reveal the touching. “He said that if I would tell anyone, my parents specifically, something bad would happen,” he said.

The teenager also told police about a ploy that prosecutors believe McKenzie used to lure other boys into sexual situations.

In 2006, as the two watched pornography together in McKenzie’s apartment, McKenzie told the boy that he knew a sculptor who was looking for models and was offering $300 for nude photos, the teen said.

In the bedroom, authorities say, McKenzie covered the boy in oil and snapped pictures as he posed on an inflatable mattress.

Police wrote that the teen estimated McKenzie abused him 40 times before McKenzie “disappeared” in 2007.

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Church alleges abuse

That year, McKenzie began volunteering at Rock Harbor Church, a booming Christian ministry with five campuses in Orange County.

The Costa Mesa branch that McKenzie attended hosted 3,000 worshipers across four weekend services.

Days after McKenzie’s arrest, church officials convened a meeting. During his five years at the church, they said, McKenzie had abused boys he met as a child-care volunteer.

They emphasized that they knew of no abuse happening during church functions. Instead, pastors said, McKenzie likely used his position in a fifth-grade classroom to build relationships with the boys and their parents.

Authorities believe he used the modeling story to talk them into posing for nude photos. Police later said that some of those sessions included molestation.

Prosecutors also believe that McKenzie tried unsuccessfully to use the ploy on a boy he met at Christ Church by the Sea in Newport Beach, which he attended before Rock Harbor.

Christ Church did not respond to a reporter’s call about McKenzie.

Rock Harbor leaders said they performed a background check and an interview that didn’t turn up any red flags.

“We are thorough, careful and prayerful in approving volunteers, and I want to make sure both our community and the general public know that,” Jeff Gideon, a church spokesman, said shortly after McKenzie’s arrest.

But according to Gideon, the process did not reveal a conviction in 2007 for driving under the influence, and McKenzie apparently hid other parts of his life. According to witness statements in the arrest warrant, McKenzie and his wife divorced in 2004 because of his alcohol abuse.

The document also recounts a 2008 report to Costa Mesa police that said McKenzie held a loaded gun to the head of one of his alleged victims “as a joke.” No charges were filed, police said.

McKenzie almost always kept a gun nearby, one boy reportedly told police, including one in his car. According to the warrant, McKenzie often talked about staying “locked and loaded.”

Since McKenzie’s arrest, Rock Harbor has started running background checks on volunteers every two years instead of once at the beginning of their service, Gideon said Wednesday.

The church now also instructs volunteers not to pursue any interaction with children or their families outside of church services.

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Lawyer rebuts police

McKenzie’s lawyer declined to comment for this story, but in court filings, he objected to the police characterization of his client.

There was no gun in McKenzie’s car when police arrested him, public defender Darren Thompson wrote in a January 2013 filing asking a judge to reduce McKenzie’s bail.

McKenzie has spent most of his life in Orange County, with his only previous run-in with the law the conviction for misdemeanor DUI in 2007, Thompson wrote.

Thompson also ridiculed the police conclusion that tires on McKenzie’s patio meant he intended to barricade himself if police came.

“Mr. McKenzie is in no way anti-government and has absolutely nothing against law enforcement,” Thompson wrote. “He has never expressed an intent (and has no intent or desire) to in any way physically harm police officers.”

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Allegations date to 1996

Orange County prosecutors allege that McKenzie’s history of preying on children stretches to at least 1996. That year, they believe, he began molesting two boys he met at a Costa Mesa apartment complex.

McKenzie built a close relationship with them, and over several years, the abuse escalated to monthly and then weekly sexual assaults, according to the arrest warrant.

One boy told police that he was abused 50 to 100 times between ages 8 and 16, according to court documents.

Police said McKenzie maintained a relationship with at least one alleged victim even after he grew into adulthood and the sexual assaults ended.

In November 2012, the man, then 24, met McKenzie for a trip to the desert for a weekend of off-roading.

McKenzie pulled up with two boys, ages 10 and 12, in his Jeep, explaining that he had met the boys at church and was taking care of them while their parents worked through a divorce, according to the arrest warrant.

The 24-year-old later told police that he “did not witness any inappropriate behavior but feared McKenzie was in the process of grooming the two young boys for sexual purposes,” according to the warrant.

Days after the trip, Newport Beach police contacted the man. A friend had helped detectives track him down, according to court documents.

He told police that he had been embarrassed to report the abuse he experienced, but in November 2012, he agreed to tell authorities his story.

According to the warrant, he said the thought of others enduring the same abuse “sickened” him.