Senior Citizen Accused of Sexually Assaulting Trabuco Hills High School Student to Be Arraigned

A 63-year-old man accused of sexually assaulting a Trabuco Hills High School girl is scheduled for arraignment today.

Jose Luis Gonzalez’s co-defendant Benjamin Avila, 28, pleaded guilty last month and was sentenced to 15 years in prison.

Gonzalez faces 12 felony counts of lewd or lascivious acts with a minor, with four counts dating back to April 1998. The older charges indicate another alleged victim; the Trabuco Hills girl wasn’t even born at that time.

Gonzalez was accused of molesting a girl younger than 10 in 2000, but the case was later dismissed, said Orange County Sheriff’s Lt. Jeff Hallock.

A “concerned parent” told a school resource officer at the Mission Viejo high school in October 2013 about an alleged “inappropriate relationship” between a 13-year-old girl and a man, according to Hallock.

The girl subsequently told investigators she had an ongoing “sexual relationship” with a “boyfriend” named Alex Valesquez, who authorities later determined to be Avila, Hallock said.

The girl told investigators she also had sex with another man, who she knew as “Alex’s uncle,” who was later identified as Gonzalez, Hallock said.

The two men are not related to each other, but are friends, Hallock said.

Digital communication between Avila and Gonzalez indicate the two “together targeted and met other females for sex,” so investigators are concerned there may be more victims, Hallock said.

If convicted, Gonzalez faces a maximum sentence of 180 years to life in state prison, prosecutors say.

City News Service Contributed to this report.

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