A 65-year-old man who died after driving a van off the Santa Cruz Wharf on Sunday morning was convicted of lewd acts with a child and released from prison a decade ago, court and state sex-offender registry records show, and his partner said the retired technician had since become a full-time caregiver for his mother.
William Thomas Westerman was arrested in 1990 by the Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Office, and charged in 1994 with 92 counts of lewd acts against a child under 14, according to records in Santa Cruz County Superior Court.
According to the State of California Megan’s Law website, a database of registered sex offenders, Westerman was convicted in 1994 of lewd acts with a child under age 14 and released from prison in 2015.
Court records did not make clear how many counts he was convicted on, how many children were involved, or where the abuse took place.
Because the case was so long ago, full records were not immediately available for inspection at the Santa Cruz County courthouse.
However, according to coverage in the Santa Cruz Sentinel newspaper, Westerman in 1994 was sentenced at age 34 to 188 years in prison after confessing to molesting his two step-daughters, aged 10 and 13, for three to four years, starting in 1989. The girls said the abuse occurred several times a week, the Sentinel reported. Westerman pled guilty to all 92 charges against him, which were based on the number of assaults on the girls, according to the newspaper.
Westerman’s sister testified at his sentencing hearing that he had repeatedly sodomized her for more than four years, starting when she was 8 and he was 12, the newspaper reported. She alleged that he passed her around to friends, tortured animals, and engaged in bestiality, according to the newspaper. He later admitted to animal cruelty, the newspaper reported.
The victims and their mother said in a probation report that they did not want Westerman imprisoned for life, but wanted him to receive counseling, the newspaper reported.
Westerman successfully appealed the sentence in 1997, getting his term slashed to 40 years, which meant he could go free in half that time if he maintained good behavior in prison.
His partner of seven years, Julie Stewart, said Westerman spent 21 years in prison.
A 2014 risk assessment found Westerman at low risk of re-offending, the Megan’s Law website said.
Last year, Westerman pleaded no contest to driving under the influence and reckless driving after an arrest by Scotts Valley Police. Under a plea deal, he was convicted of reckless driving, with the DUI charge dismissed. He was sentenced to four days in jail, but having already spent two days behind bars, was given credit for time served and good conduct, and released.
Westerman lived with his 93-year-old mother and Stewart in a ramshackle, two-story, shingle-sided home north of Santa Cruz in the hills of Scotts Valley, with an empty pool in the yard surrounded by potted plants, and security cameras by the front door, below the roof, and at the bottom of the driveway.
“He was a 24/7 caregiver for his mom,” said Stewart, 59. Westerman, a retired heating and air conditioning technician, had been looking after his mother since getting out of prison, she said. “He would call her every 45 minutes to an hour every day, if he wasn’t with her. If she was upstairs and he was downstairs he’d call her and check how she’s doing.”
Every week, Westerman would take his mother for a drive, “go to the ocean, go to the mountains, just cruise around where the wildflowers were,” Stewart said.
Friends called Westerman “Fixit Will” for his repair skills, Stewart said.
“Neighbors would come and call, he was always doing something for somebody,” she said. “He did more for other people than he ever did for himself.”
What led to Westerman driving off the wharf remains under police investigation. The Santa Cruz fire department responded Sunday just before 10 a.m. to reports of a vehicle driving through the railing at a bend near the end of the wharf, and plunging into the water. First responders found about 15 feet of railing missing. Westerman’s Toyota minivan was discovered lying on its roof about 30 feet deep in Monterey Bay, and rescue swimmers broke a window to pull him out, unconscious. He was taken to Dominican Hospital in Santa Cruz, where he was pronounced dead.
Stewart’s two-year-old boxer dog Cali was in the van with Westerman and was rescued from the water uninjured, Stewart said. She believes the dog’s presence in the vehicle shows Westerman did not deliberately drive off the wharf.
“She was his world. He took her everywhere,” Stewart said. “He would never do that to her.”
Westerman was diabetic, Stewart said.
“His blood sugar could’ve dropped, he could’ve blacked out,” Stewart said. “That’s the only explanation we can think of.”
Santa Cruz Police continue to investigate the circumstances of the incident.
Westerman drove several times a week to the wharf or nearby ocean overlooks in Santa Cruz, Stewart said.
“He really loved to watch the waves and the surfers and the ocean,” she said.
