A Victorville couple and their daughter were arrested on Monday and charged with abusing and torturing six children who were in their care as part of San Bernardino County’s guardianship program.
While the district attorney’s office leveled serious felony charges against the three defendants and District Attorney Jason Anderson himself made definite accusations pointedly imputing a level of callous sadism to the three, neighbors who were familiar with the family and who had in some cases interacted with the children offered statements to indicate that they had seen no evidence to support the allegations and that there were contraindications that the children were subjected to abuse of the character alleged.
In addition, there were technical and factual errors in the warrant for the defendant’s arrest that carried over into court papers, and indication that the substance of the charges might in the long term be subject to discredition.
Kenneth Key, 60, and Tina Key, 60, who is also known as Tina Marie Sheffield Key, and their daughter Katlynn Key, 23, were arrested on Monday, May 12, charged on Wednesday with six counts of torture and a single count of willfully causing a child to suffer, all of which were subject to sentencing enhancements for inflicting great bodily injury on the victims. They were given a video arraignment before Commissioner Michael Lough in Rancho Cucamonga Superior Court on Thursday, May 15.
Deputy District Attorney Anna Choo was the prosecuting attorney.
Tina Key was represented by Deputy Public Defender Randall Isaeff. Because they are co-defendants and there is a possibility that a conflict will develop between them at a future point, neither Kenneth Key not Katlynn Key is being represented by the public defender’s office. Different attorney with the county’s conflict panel will be provided to them, but as of Thursday had not been appointed. Isaeff entered not guilty pleas for his defendant and Judge Lough entered not guilty pleas to all charges against the husband/father and daughter.

The children, ages four to 16 , were subject to physical and psychological abuse while they were in the Key home, located at 13764 Helena Drive in Victorville, according to District Attorney Jason Anderson.
Those children were being abused, according to the district attorney’s office “for years.” The youngest child, at four years of age, reportedly lived with the Keys for three years. The oldest child, a girl aged 16, lived with the Keys for ten years, according to the district attorney’s office.

The children documented the years of abuse through written documentation also through photographs that were captured on i-pads in cameras
The children received virtually daily beatings and on occasion were strangled to the point of unconsciousness , according to the district attorney’s office. In addition, according to Choo, the Keys would punish the children by withholding food and water from them for days at a time.
According to Anderson, some of the children made a record of “the years of abuse through written documentation [and] also through photographs that were captured on I-pads in cameras.”
Anderson said, “You’re dealing with a situation where [there was] repetitive abuse against young people by individuals who should have the legal and moral obligation to take care of them and didn’t. We think that’s an aggravating case and it’s appropriate to ask for no bail. These individuals pose a significant risk to the community and should not be released.”
Anderson says the situation in the Key household came to light when the oldest child in February left the home and went to a stored within walking distance of the house and sought help. The authorities were summoned and when a check of the situation at the house was made, the children were removed. Over a period of close to three months, an investigation was carried out, culminating in the arrests on Monday.
According to Anderson, a few of the children had been “taped down” and then deprived of food and water.
“Fortunately, one of the children had the courage to report it, saving the younger children from continued years of abuse,” Anderson said.
According to the district attorney’s office and Anderson, the Keys might have terrorized the kids into keeping their mouths shut about what they were being subjected to.
“There is some indication that when there were visits by social workers, the kids were told to go on script,” Anderson said.
According to Choo, the office’s investigators determined that the kids were not allowed outside and the only time they were seen was with the guardians getting into one of two family vehicles, most notably a silver van.
Discrepancies between the sensationalized allegations thrown at the Keys and what some who were in a position to see the adults interacting with their young charges had to say. In addition, the documentation prepared by the district attorney’s office to obtain the arrest warrants was marred by factual errors, which casts doubt on the accuracy of the documentation and the case being constructed against the Keys by prosecutors.
One example of these inaccuracies or factual errors is the reference to Kenneth and Tina Key as the children’s “foster parents.” In fact, the Keys are bit foster parents but the children’s guardians.
Foster care is a temporary living arrangement for children and youth who are unable to remain housed, generally on a temporary basis, with their biological parents, due to various reasons or circumstances. Foster parents lack the same legal rights with regard to the children living in their home as legal guardians or biological parents. The courts, along with the employees within a county foster agency, have a wide latitude of control over the lives of foster children. Children are generally entrusted to foster parents as a stopgap arrangement to see that the children who are for a time not being looked after by their real families have a place to stay. It is virtually always the case that foster parents welcome foster children into their home to facilitate the eventual reunification of those children with their biological families. Often, foster parents work with county officials to allow the biological parents of the children in their care to have visitation.
Guardians, however, are not temporary caregivers to the children in their home but rather permanent ones. Legal guardianship is a legal arrangement in which an individual or entity is granted the legal authority and responsibility to care for and make decisions on behalf of a child. Courts typically confer guardianship of children to individuals or couples who have applied for guardianship and have passed a background check.
Legal guardians have the authority to make decisions pertaining to the education, healthcare, and overall upbringing of the children entrusted to them. There are temporary legal guardianships that are put in place for a specific period, arrangements that are necessitated by a family crisis or conditions during which parents are temporarily unable to look after their children. Permanent legal guardianships are established when a child cannot be safely reunited with his or her biological parents, and a stable, long-term living arrangement is in the child’s best interest. Legal guardianships in most cases, as with the Keys, entail a long-term commitment.
The children living with the Keys were from multiple families. Four of them, the Sentinel has learned, went by the names Adrian, Nasir, Levi and Niyla.
The sheriff’s department’s crimes against children unit looked into the matter beginning in February. The Sentinel was told that there were differences among the sheriff’s department investigators as well as differences between sheriff’s detectives and district attorney’s office investigators with regard to the credibility of the witnesses making allegations against the Keys. A sheriff’s department employee pointed out that Kenneth and Tina Key had been serving as guardians for “ten years and we never received any kind of allegations of abuse.” It was the belief of at least one investigator that the original report of abuse that brought the authorities into the matter stemmed from the oldest child becoming angry with one of the older Keys over a routine domestic issue.
The Sentinel heard from three neighbors who contradicted the district attorney’s office’s claims that the Keys were restricting the children’s movements. The suggestion that the oldest girl had to “escape” from the house to a local store to inform the authorities about abuse was patently untrue, as the children were in a scholastic and social setting in which they interacted with neighbors from time to time and were not being kept under wraps.
“They seemed like normal, everyday kids,” one neighbor said. “They looked happy and well-adjusted to me. They were well-behaved and usually kept to themselves, but occasionally they were hanging around with other kids from the neighborhood.”
Another neighbor said there was a steady flow of groceries into the house and plenty of refuse, including spent food package, of in the family’s trash bins every week.
“Those kids weren’t starving,” he said.