Hollister
– The San Benito County District Attorney’s Office has charged a
local man with four counts of felony sexual acts after he was
arrested last month for an alleged year-long sexual relationship
with a 15-year-old girl.
Hollister – The San Benito County District Attorney’s Office has charged a local man with four counts of felony sexual acts after he was arrested last month for an alleged year-long sexual relationship with a 15-year-old girl.
District Attorney John Sarsfield charged Bernardo De La Cruz with sodomy of a person under 16-years old, a felony; lewd act upon a child, a felony; oral copulation with a person under 16, a felony; and unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor who is under 16-years old, a felony, on Oct. 16. The San Benito County Sheriff’s Department originally arrested De La Cruz on suspicion of 200 counts of felony child molestation and one felony count of sodomy on Oct. 12.
The reduced count number is a tactical decision.
“It’s very difficult to show; you’d have to show 200 separate instances and events,” said Sarsfield.
Proving 200 counts would take too much time and too many judicial resources, Sarsfield said. The reduced count number should make a conviction easier, he said.
“All we have to do is prove a few did occur over a period of time,” Sarsfield said.
Detectives were first made aware of the alleged relationship when the victim and her mother approached the Sheriff’s Department with the incident, according to Detective Bryan Penney.
According to an incident report, the victim told Detective Doug Dahmen she and De La Cruz allegedly had sexual intercourse more than 50 times since Aug. 2005.
When Penney questioned De La Cruz about the incident, De La Cruz was being held in the San Benito County jail on a previous charge of felony inflicting corporal injury on a child, disobeying a court order and resisting arrest.
De La Cruz told investigators he and the girl engaged in sexual acts more than 200 times over the past year, according to Penney.
Both the victim and the suspect told Dahmen and Penney that De La Cruz was a family friend.
De La Cruz is being held at the San Benito County jail in lieu of $2 million in bail.
If convicted of unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor who is under 16 years old, De La Cruz could face up to four years in prison.
De La Cruz will appear in court again on Nov. 22 for a preliminary setting.
Michael Van Cassell covers public safety for the Free Lance. He can be reached at 831-637-5566 ext. 335 or mv*********@fr***********.com.
