CARNEY MOLESTATION TRIAL TO PROCEED ON SCHEDULE.

Byline: Karen Maeshiro Staff Writer

LOS ANGELES - Attorneys for former Palmdale City Councilman and retired sheriff's Sgt. Kevin Carney failed Friday to get a delay in his trial on child-molestation charges.

Attorneys for Carney asked Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Jacqueline Connor to delay the start of the trial, scheduled for Monday, but Connor refused, prosecutors said.

``She said it was untimely,'' Deputy District Attorney Robert Dver said.

Carney, 49, who attended Friday's pretrial hearing with his wife, has pleaded not guilty to the charges he molested four girls, including one over an eight-year period.

Carney was released from the Men's Central Jail on May 15, three days after Connor reduced his bail from $1 million to $500,000, and family members and friends came up with the money for his release.

Dver was in the Antelope Valley this week preparing for the case, talking to witnesses and visiting locations of the alleged offenses. He said he expects the trial to take three weeks.

Carney's attorney, Milton Grimes, did not appear at Friday's hearing and had an associate stand in for him. Grimes could not be reached for comment.

If convicted, Carney faces about 60 years to life in prison.

Carney was relieved of duty from the Lancaster sheriff's station following his arrest on Oct. 29, 1999, on suspicion of molesting one of the four girls. He has since retired from the Sheriff's Department.

Carney, a former high school trustee, was elected to a four-year term on the Palmdale City Council on Nov. 2, 1999, four days after his arrest.

He was released the evening of his arrest on $100,000 bail. He was taken back into custody with bail increased to $2 million when prosecutors filed 18 counts against him in January.

That same month, Carney resigned his City Council post after serving less than six weeks.

One of the 18 counts, a misdemeanor charge alleging that Carney possessed child pornography - photographs found in a briefcase in his house - has since been dismissed.

Prosecutors agreed to dismiss that charge, saying that there was insufficient evidence because Carney had been head of the sheriff's unit that investigates child abuse cases.

According to investigators, a 14-year-old girl said the abuse started when she was about 6 years old and ended when she revealed the abuse to her mother Oct. 28 after an encounter with Carney.

After picking her up from school, the girl said, Carney drove her to an unpopulated area where he plied her with tequila and soft drinks.

In all, the girl told authorities that Carney had fondled her more than 100 times in those eight years, including once on a trip to Yosemite in 1994, when he is also accused of fondling another girl who was 9 years old at the time.

In part, the girl who was allegedly abused over the eight years did not reveal the molestation earlier because she feared what her mother would think of her.

The two other girls named in court documents first raised their allegations against Carney in 1997, but prosecutors declined to file charges.

Those two girls said they were fondled in an upstairs room of Carney's house as they played with small water turtles that he kept in an aquarium.