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A Sunnyvale man suspected of molesting a young child in Mountain View on 50 occasions was arrested last month after the victim, feeling empowered by the #MeToo movement, went to police after 16 years of silence.
Mountain View police arrested the man, 43-year-old Jose Vicente Contreras, on Dec. 13 at his home on Ahwanee Avenue in Sunnyvale, following reports that he had sexually assaulted and molested the victim numerous times over the course of a year while they both lived in Mountain View.
Contreras has since been charged with two counts of aggravated sexual assault on a child, along with six counts of lewd or lascivious acts on a child by force, violence, duress, menace or fear. He remains in Santa Clara County’s Elmwood Correctional Complex without bail, according to court documents.
The victim initially reached out to a counselor at her college via email, saying that she was molested by her neighbor while she was either nine or 10 years old and living in an apartment on the 1000 block of Rich Avenue. Up until that point she had only told one other person, who suggested that the incidents happened too long ago to do anything, according to court documents.
The counselor came to the Mountain View Police Department with the information, and said the victim told her she wanted to be a social worker and felt that she “had to help herself before she could go on to help others.”
In a Nov. 14 interview with police, the victim — now an adult — said she felt that nothing could be done, and that it might be better to keep quiet rather than unearth the incidents. But she said her sociology teacher mentioned the #MeToo movement and how “women were being heard and justice was being done,” including in old cases like hers.
“So I just kept thinking why should I just keep quiet,” she reportedly told police. “Maybe I should just speak up.”
The victim detailed eight specific instances where she encountered Contreras, and how he would allegedly prey on her in the apartment complex when — as part of her daily chores — she would take the trash out to the dumpsters located in the parking lot. The first physical contact involved Contreras touching her hair, but they escalated one he realized she wasn’t reporting the incidents to her family, according to court documents.
Contreras lived downstairs from the victim’s family, and the woman told police that Contreras would grab her ankle from underneath the stairs as a means to stop her and talk to her. The victim alleges that Contreras exposed himself to her, molested her and sexually assaulted her “over 50 times,” according to the police report. It was unclear if he was employed at the time because he always seemed to be in the apartment complex, according to the victim.
The victim’s family was frequently in contact with Contreras, and she said feared reporting the incidents because her mother had come to rely on him. Her mother did not drive, and Contreras would help her family by driving them places. The worry was not only that Contreras would stop helping her mother and she would get in trouble, but that no one would believe her allegations, she said.
The victim returned to the police department on Nov. 27 and identified the suspect as Contreras, which helped lead to his arrest three weeks later.
It turns out that Contreras faced similar allegations in the past. In January 2004, police received reports that he had allegedly molested one of three young children who were invited to his home to use the swimming pool in a Mountain View apartment complex during the prior summer. Contreras, interviewed by police, repeatedly denied the allegations, despite several probing questions by officers about why the child might have reported being molested.
Police originally said in a statement last month that Contreras faced sexual assault allegations “sometime in 2002,” possibly referring to the swimming pool incident, and noted that the case was eventually dropped.
How can the accused be expected to defend? Any evidence and witnesses are long gone.
Back defending sex offenders again? Do you have some kind of sick fetish regarding scum like that?
@Maher
Some of what you say I agree on, some I hope I am misunderstanding you.
Guilt by accusation can be used against women just as easily as against men.
I must assume you are not old enough to recall the case of the McMartin Preschool from the 1980s?
Guilt by accusation has been done before, as has guilt by association.
Look up how the Salem Witch Trials and McCarthyism effected the innocent accused.
“I hope they lock this predator away so long he dies in prison. Predators are long term practioners and they do not change.”
Indeed, as far as we know there is no effective way to “treat” child predators to stop their abuse of kids and if this guy is guilty, then letting him out ever will be a huge risk. I’m all for keeping such lawfully proven guilty predators safely away from all kids.
“Children’s accusations should be given the benefit of any doubt and authorities need to investigate all aspects of any such case.”
Investigate accusations, certainly, but in our justice system any person (regardless of the horror of the accusation or who is making the accusations) is always innocent until our due-process legal system proves BEYOND any reasonable doubt that they are guilty.
And if you think the accusations of kids is somehow “better”, then I strongly urge you to read up on the McMartin Preschool case and the many other cases just like it all across the USA in the 1980s.
We must NEVER allow a criminal or any group of criminals drive us all to give up our fundamental rights and protections which our Constitution was written to protect and preserve for ourselves and our posterity.
“The boys’ club “wink and nod” benefit of doubt for the accused simply must stop…”
So, anyone accused of the sexual abuse of anyone should be automatically convicted and sent to prison based on nothing more than the accusation of one person alone?
That means everyone, male or female, can find themselves in prison for a crime they never did or even that never happened at all.
Look up the “innocence project”. We already put some innocent people in prison (on Death-Row no less) even after a full trial and appeals.
You want to change the standard to guilt by accusation?
“those benefits have been going on too long”
You mean since the US Constitution was written?
“and #MeTOO and other campaigns about sexual crimes are proving my words are true.”
Now there I agree with you!
The whole concept of innocent until proven guilty is under attack and we are ALL at risk now of becoming a victim of a false accusation.
“Patriarchal toleration of predators has been the reality and now comes the consequence.”
You mean abolishing trials all together and punishing people on nothing more than an accusation?
You really need to go study the Salem Witch Trials, your attitude would have fit in back then just fine!
” Nail the f-king a-holes to the door and let them rot.”
Once proven guilty by a lawfully run court of law, sure, fine by me.
Guilty by accusations cannot be accepted.
You are advocating that the criminal actions of predators should steal away the rights, freedoms and protections of all of the rest of us!
You want to give the predators that much power?
You want terrorists to be able to scare us into surrendering all our freedoms out of fear of them?
I hope they lock this predator away so long he dies in prison. Predators are long term practioners and they do not change. Children’s accusations should be given the benefit of any doubt and authorities need to investigate all aspects of any such case. The boys’ club “wink and nod” benefit of doubt for the accused simply must stop… those benefits have been going on too long and #MeTOO and other campaigns about sexual crimes are proving my words are true. Patriarchal toleration of predators has been the reality and now comes the consequence. Nail the f-king a-holes to the door and let them rot.
Article said:
“A Sunnyvale man suspected of molesting a young child in Mountain View on 50 occasions was arrested last month…”
“… turns out that Contreras faced similar allegations in the past. In January 2004, police received reports that he had allegedly molested one of three young children who were invited to his home…”
Personally, I would want the cops digging into every place this guy ever lived and then put up a web-site with the list of dates, places and photos to ask if anyone who lived near there recalls him interacting with a child matching his accusers profile at the time of the events.
I would want the cops to find every neighbor with kids that ever lived next door to him or in the same apartment complex. Talk to them to find more victims. Get photos of what he looked like through his life and get those photos out to the public.
This could not have been his first victim, so I fully expect there are several prior victims out there and finding them would be plenty of proof to put the guy away forever.
Again, assuming he is proven guilty in a court of law because this part is more important than punishing the crimes of any one criminal.