Another potentially disturbing sex crimes story in today’s Southern California criminal defense news.    Friday morning, law enforcement arrested a 41-year-old party clown, Jose Guadalupe Jimenez, while he was dressed as a clown.  Detectives allege that a DNA match tied Mr. Jimenez to an unsolved rape and kidnapping from January 19, 2002.  In this alleged rape and kidnapping, the suspect grabbed a girl at the corner of Lemon and Commonwealth in Fullerton, drove her to a school parking lot and raped her.  The suspect then allegedly took the girl to a motel where he molested her again.  The girl escaped and told the police that her attacker was a Hispanic male wearing a clown mask and make-up.

Mr. Jimenez was apparently arrested in 2010 and his DNA matched the DNA taken when the girl filed her original police report.

As a criminal defense attorney who handles a substantial amount of sex crimes cases in Los Angeles and Southern California, it is remarkable how many recent child molestation and rape cases are turning up as cold hit DNA cases due to the advances in DNA science.  The catch remains that in order for their to be a DNA match, the alleged defendant must end up in the criminal justice system for something in order to have his DNA taken.  Mr. Jimenez is facing a lifetime in state prison and mandatory sex registration for life if convicted on all the alleged sex crimes and kidnapping charges.

If you, or a loved, one has been accused of a sex crime, then call the Law Offices of Karen L Goldstein for a free, confidential consultation: (888) 445-6313.

On Monday October 11, 2010, the police arrested a Monrovia man, David Nicholas, for allegedly having participated in the kidnapping of two toddler boys by their father and grandfather last Thursday. Mr. Nicolas is accused of conspiracy in relation to the kidnapping as an accomplice.

As a criminal defense attorney in Los Angeles who routinely handles kidnapping cases, I know that the common public perception surrounding an accusation of kidnapping, and the typical facts of an actual alleged kidnapping case, vary greatly. While the public may hear the word kidnapping or child abduction and assume a child has been snatched out of a public space and forcefully taken by a stranger, more often than not, kidnapping cases involve a custody battle between two divorced or soon-to-be divorced parents, one of whom decides to take the law into his/her own hands by running off with his or her child without legal permission. While taking one’s child without legal custody rights is against the law, and may be traumatic to the child, it is certainly a far cry from the idea of a stranger kidnapping, physically abusing, or sexually abusing a small child who was stolen from a public space from his or her family. Certainly, in some criminal kidnapping cases there are also allegations of child abuse both physical and sexual, but this is a minority rather than a majority of criminal cases.

Interestingly enough, the children who were allegedly kidnapped, have not yet been found, but are believed to be somewhere in the local area in Southern California. Although details regarding the custody situation have not been released, the police believe that the abductors are the children’s father and paternal grandfather and not stranger abductors.