Important safety tip to parents out there:
Do not bring your kids to a daycare center with a resident who resembles the person in today's first police mugshot.
We end our roundup with an ex-infantryman who had been facing sexual assault charges that were rejected by a jury.
Larry Montanez, a resident of a daycare center in Santa Ana, is accused of sexually assaulting three children under age 10 there over a three-year period, according to police, who fear there could be more victims given the 63-year-old's “access to children for many years.” A Santa Ana Police Department advisory indicates Montanez was arrested Wednesday for the alleged assaults reported to have happened at Anne's Daycare in the 2100 block of South Cedar Street, where the crimes allegedly happened from 2013 through this past Tuesday. The facility was licensed from 2001 through 2008 and again from 2010 through the current year. Anyone aware of suspicious or criminal behavior committed by Montanez is asked to contact Santa Ana Police Special Crimes detectives at 714.245.8351.
Sean Luke Salaber, an ex-Army infantryman who had been accused of cupping and squeezing the breasts of a jogger he grabbed from behind in a park near Laguna Niguel, was convicted Wednesday of attacking the woman but jurors rejected more serious sexual assault charges. The 23-year-old is scheduled to be sentenced Oct. 7 for felony false imprisonment and single misdemeanor counts of assault, battery and brandishing a replica gun.
The woman was out for her usual evening run in Aliso and Wood Canyons Regional Park in September of last year when she made eye contact with Salaber, who was standing along the trail near some bushes. She waved as she ran by but about a half hour later she saw him again, got frightened and picked up her pace, according to Deputy District Attorney Heidi Garrel. He tackled the lady jogger from behind, held an air gun to her head, told her to shut up and tried to cover her mouth with his hand as he stole the only thing she had: an iPod. Garrel tried to convince jurors Salaber sexually assaulted the victim as well, but the panel obviously sided with defense attorney Sara Ross, who told them her former National Guardsman client had fallen on hard times and only robbed the woman by force so he could sell her iPod. The counts jurors rejected were felony assault with intent to commit a sex offense and misdemeanor touching an intimate part of another person.
