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By Jim Herron Zamora
THE SAN FRANCISCO EXAMINER
October 25, 1995, Wednesday
News; Pg. A-1

The victim of a childhood sexual molestation is urging filmgoers to
boycott the new Disney film "Powder," which was directed by the man
who videotaped himself having oral sex with the then-12-year-old
Concord boy.

The film, about a troubled teenager, is scheduled for release this
Friday in 1,200 theaters nationwide. Its director, Victor Salva,
confessed in 1988 to five felony counts related to having sex with a
boy he directed in a low-budget film.

The molestation victim, Nathan Winters, now 20, has decided to go
public with his ordeal to protest Salva's connection with the movie,
which was made by a subsidiary of Walt Disney Studios.

Winters led a small band of protesters outside an entertainment
industry screening of the movie in Los Angeles on Monday night.


Salva, 37, said in a statement Tuesday that he regretted his past
actions.

"I paid for my mistakes dearly," he said. "Now, nearly 10 years
later, I am excited about my work as a filmmaker and look forward to
continuing to make a positive contribution to our industry."

Nathan's mother, Rebecca Winters of Concord, called Salva's return
to filmmaking "absolutely outrageous."

"I can't believe it. It just makes me sick," she said. "I'm not
going to stand by. He should not be allowed to live his life as if
nothing happened."

She said the family learned that Salva was directing the movie when
they saw his name on TV during an advertisement for "Powder."

"We were shocked to see his name in the credits," she said.

Salva confessed to having oral sex with Nathan Winters in 1987 while
directing the then sixth-grader in "Clownhouse," a film about three
boys terrorized by circus clowns.

"Clownhouse" won several awards and was the first horror movie
released at the acclaimed Sundance Film Festival.

Salva was sentenced to three years in state prison, serving 15
months and completing parole in 1992, according to the state
Corrections Department and court records in Contra Costa County. He
is a registered sex offender in Los Angeles County, according to
state records.

Laws in 46 states, including California, treat sex offenders
differently than other convicted criminals in that sex offenders,
once released from prison, are required to register with authorities
in communities where they take up residence. This is because
pedophiles are driven by a psychological compulsion that has
typically not been cured by therapy, according to criminologists and prosecutors.

Although Salva's prison sentence was the shortest he was eligible
for, it did not come as a result of a plea bargain, said Senior
Deputy District Attorney Jack Waddell, who headed Contra Costa
County's sexual assault prosecution unit at the time.

Winters, who also acted for Salva in the 1986 short film "Something
in the Basement," told his mother during the making of "Clownhouse"
that Salva had forced sex on him.

When police raided Salva's house, they found two homemade
pornographic tapes, one showing Salva having oral sex with Winters.

In April 1988, Salva pleaded guilty to one count of lewd and
lascivious conduct, one count of oral copulation with a person under
14 and three counts of procuring a child for pornography. At his
sentencing hearing, a prosecutor said Salva appeared to seek jobs
where he could work with children. Salva has written children's
books and in 1985 worked at the Crawford Village Child Care Center
in Concord.

Rated PG-13, the $ 10 million "Powder" is Salva's first mainstream
Hollywood movie. The film was made for Caravan Pictures, a
production company wholly owned by Disney.

Movie industry sources said that Salva was not under contract with
Caravan or Disney for any movies beyond "Powder."

Salva's work with Caravan could prove embarrassing for Disney, whose
theme parks, animated characters and popular cartoon videos have
cemented its reputation for wholesome family fun for more than six
decades.

Disney declined comment to The Examiner. Disney spokesman John
Dreyer told the Associated Press, "What's the point, other than you
want to make headlines?"

But Dreyer confirmed that Disney's corporate office was not aware of
Salva's criminal record.

The producer of "Powder" defended his embattled director.

"He paid for his crime, he paid his debt to society," said Roger
Birnbaum, head of Caravan Pictures who also recently produced "Dead
Presidents" and "The Big Green." "What happened eight years ago has
nothing to do with this movie."

Birnbaum said he was tipped about Salva's conviction halfway through
filming "Powder" and confronted him. Told only the basics, Birnbaum
elected to neither dismiss Salva nor inform the entire cast and
crew. Instead, Birnbaum said, "Key production people were told to
keep an eye out for anything, just in case." Nothing improper was
observed, Birnbaum said.

"Powder" stars Mary Steenburgen and Jeff Goldblum as the teachers of
a boy with telekinetic powers and pure white skin, which repels his
peers.

The actor who plays the teenage Powder, Sean Patrick Flanery, is 29,
and Birnbaum told the Los Angeles Times that no minors were on the
set during filming of the movie.

Experts in child abuse fear that Salva's role as a director of a
teen-oriented film could put him in a position where he could use
his power as a lever to abuse other minors.

"The frustrating part for law enforcement is that you have a
convicted molester who is able to be around children and to be in a
position of authority," Officer Joe Kreins of the Concord Police
Department said. "It would be very easy for him to abuse his power
and authority in that position."

A 1988 state Justice Department study found that almost half of all
sex offenders are re-arrested; nearly 20 percent of sex offenders
commit another sex crime. Convicted sex offenders are more than nine
times as likely to commit another sex offense than a person
convicted for a non-sex offense, statistics show.

"People do commit offenses and get out and get on with their lives,"
Waddell said. But "pedophiles and child molesters do have a tendency
toward recidivism."

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