California BMX coach gets 188 years for porn, sexually assaulting 3 boys

Mandak Kohn Griffin, now 40, was ordered to serve 188 years and eight months to life in state prison.

A former Cypress bicycle-motocross coach was sentenced to life in prison on Friday, April 9, for sexually assaulting three boys and exchanging child pornography on the internet.

Mandak Kohn Griffin, now 40, was ordered to serve 188 years and eight months to life in state prison, a month after a judge found him guilty of 13 felony charges, including possession of child pornography and lewd acts upon a child.

Orange County Superior Court Judge Michael J. Cassidy noted that Griffin gained the trust of the children – as well as their families – to groom them, even serving as a godfather for one of the boys. The victims were from 5 to 9 years old when the sexual abuse occurred.

“You had it made, everything a guy could want, and you just destroyed your life, destroyed these kids’ lives,” Cassidy told Griffin. “There is no excuse for it. You are what people talk about when they talk about monsters in the community who abuse children.”

The mother of one victim, in a statement read by a prosecutor during the sentencing hearing, told Griffin that the family has found peace in knowing he will not be able to hurt them or anyone else again.

“I sure as hell don’t feel sorry for you, and I never will,” the mother wrote. “You are right where you belong for the horrible things you’ve done.”

Prosecutors accused Griffin of befriending the neighborhood boys and inviting them over to his Cypress house to hang out and look at pornographic movies and magazines. During his trial, Deputy District Attorney Ann Fawaz said at least one of the boys “practically lived” at Griffin’s home.

Griffin’s attorney, Cameron Talley, didn’t deny that Griffin had child pornography and had taken explicit photographs of at least one of the boys. But the defense attorney argued there was no evidence Griffin had sex with any of them.

Griffin opted for a bench trial, putting the decision of his guilt in the hands of a judge rather than a jury. During the trial, Talley said jurors would have likely seen the explicit materials that Griffin possessed and then “folded their arms and said, ‘I’m done.’”