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 fulltime caregiver for his mother.

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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. Westerman pleaded not guilty to all counts.

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

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