A Sunnyvale man suspected of molesting a young child in Mountain View on 50 occasions was arrested last month because the victim, feeling empowered by the #MeToo movement, decided to talk 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 at 580 Ahwanee Ave. 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. His public defender, Gary Goodman, said he could not immediately comment, as he was waiting for detailed case information from the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s office.
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 9 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 physical contact first involved Contreras touching her hair, but escalated once 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 she 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.
Contreras is due to appear in court next month.
Email Kevin Forestier at kforestieri@mv-voice.com
