| For Immediate Release Case # 08NF1236 March 14, 2012 |
Susan Kang Schroeder Chief of Staff Office: 714-347-8408 Cell: 714-292-2718 Farrah Emami |
COUNSELOR CONVICTED OF MOLESTING THREE BOYS IN CHILDREN’S HOME
SANTA ANA – A counselor for a Fullerton children’s home was convicted today of molesting three boys in his office while they used his phone to call their families living in other countries. Victor Salazar, 30, Santa Ana, was found guilty by a jury of four felony counts of lewd acts on a child between the ages of 14 and 15 and two misdemeanor counts of sexual battery. He faces a maximum sentence of seven years and eight months in state prison and lifetime sex offender registration. A sentencing date will be determined tomorrow, Thursday, March 15, 2012, at 1:30 p.m. in Department C-42, Central Justice Center, Santa Ana.
At the time of the crime, Salazar worked as a counselor at Florence Crittenton Home on Harbor Boulevard in Fullerton. Florence Crittenden Home is a facility that houses children living in the United States without parents, either because the parents have been deported or the child came to the United States alone. The children are taken into protective custody by the government until they can be reunited with their family, placed in foster care, or they reach maturity.
Between May 25, 2007, and February 5, 2008, Salazar molested three boys between the ages of 15 and 16 years old. In each case, the defendant was the assigned counselor for the victim. Each victim would go into Salazar’s office to make a personal telephone call to their family in South or Central America. While the victim was on the phone, the defendant sexually assaulted the boy by putting his hand down the victims’ pants and fondling the victims’ penis.
The sexual assaults were discovered in February 2008 after one of the 15-year-old victims reported that he had been molested by Salazar.
The victims, some of whom lived at Florence Crittenton Home at different times, reported that they did not immediately come forward about the assault because the defendant was in a position of authority and they feared they could be deported or lose the privilege to call their families if they complained.
Salazar’s lifetime sex offender registration will bar him from entering County recreational areas and City parks that have passed the Sex Offender Ordinance. Visit www.orangecountyda.com to read the prior press releases on the County’s Sex Offender Ordinance as well as the 11 other cities that have enacted the Child Safety Zone Ordinance.
Deputy District Attorney Mark Birney of the Sexual Assault Unit is prosecuting this case.
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