Fair Oaks Man Accused of Groping Daughter, Daughter’s Friend

A Fair Oaks residence was the site of a reported molestation last month, according to a Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department report.

The sheriff’s department has released few details in its ongoing investigation of the Aug. 15 incident. According to an incident report from the department, a 53-year-old man was accused of entering the room of his 13-year-old daughter at approximately 3 a.m. and inappropriately touching her and a 14-year-old female friend who was staying the night. Specifically, the report says the two young girls’ breasts were touched.

Sheriff’s department spokesman Deputy Jason Ramos was unable to answer specific questions about who contacted authorities, when they were contacted and whether the victims were interview separately.

While the department’s database shows the incident occurred Aug. 15, the report was entered seven days later. That doesn’t necessarily mean the sheriff’s department wasn’t notified immediately, however. Some incidents that are reported and investigated can occasionally take a few days to show up in the database, according to past instances.

“Since this is an ongoing investigation, based on the nature of the alleged offense, I can’t provide specific details at this time,” Ramos explained.

Ramos was able to comment generally on the difference between domestic assault complaints and those involving claims of molestation. With the former, all it takes is a complaint of an attack for sheriff’s authorities to make an arrest.

It’s not the same with most other crimes, including those involving sexual abuse.

In this case, the father has not been arrested.

“Domestic violence is unique in the respect that the law, which was amended several years ago, states that if there is either a complaint of pain by the victim or visible sign of injury to the victim, that law enforcement officers shall (not ‘may’) make an arrest,” Ramos said via email. “The law takes discretion out of our hands.”

Alleged sexual assaults, however, are handled like most other crimes, he added, with authorities needing probable cause that a specific person committed a crime to make an arrest.

“Sometimes, though, in sex assault cases, an arrest may not be made until greater evidence can be acquired,” Ramos said. “This partly has to do with the fact that district attorneys who prosecute such cases are demanding a greater set of factors that will increase the likelihood of a conviction if the case goes to trial.”

Such cases are further complicated by the tendency for victims to recant their statements by the time a case reaches trial, sometimes several months after the initial complaint. Which is something both domestic assault and sexual assault cases have in common, according to law enforcement officials.