San Juan Capistrano Man Accused of Molesting 2 Children

By PAUL ANDERSON

SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO, CA A 28-year-old man sexually assaulted two underage relatives, a girl and a boy, while living with their parents in San Juan Capistrano and Salinas, an Orange County prosecutor told a jury today.

Victor Carmen Manriquez-Fernandez faces 20 felony charges, including sodomy, forcible lewd acts on a child and lewd or lascivious acts with minors, involving two alleged victims -- a boy, now 13, and a girl, now 16, Deputy District Attorney Karyn Stokke said.

"You're going to hear this defendant sodomized him numerous times," Stokke said of the boy.

In early July 2013, the boy finally confided in his parents when his mother instructed him to sleep in the living room with the defendant, who was sleeping on the couch, Stokke said.

The boy said he did not want to do it because the defendant was molesting him, his mother testified.

In his opening statement, defense attorney Bob Mueller told jurors "a whole lot of family members lived together in one big house," but that there were no eyewitnesses to back up the children's claims.

The boy was sent to a doctor for an exam after he accused the defendant of molesting him, but there was no physical evidence to support his allegations, Mueller said.

"No one saw anything and no one ever heard anything," Mueller said.

When jurors hear a translation of the defendant's statement to sheriff's investigators and compare it with the allegations, "they're not going to add up," Mueller said. "It won't match up."

The defendant lived with the alleged victims' family in Salinas and after they moved to San Juan Capistrano in 2011, he later rejoined them, the parents of the boy and girl testified.

After the boy made the allegations, his mother ordered Manriquez- Fernandez out of their two-bedroom home, she testified. She then called sheriff's deputies.

Legal arguments regarding a move to suppress evidence of child pornography on the defendant's electronic devices allege the defendant took photos of the boy's naked rear when he was in preschool and told him that he would show others the pictures if he did not do what the defendant wanted.

The dates of the alleged abuse go back to May 2002 and continued through July 6, 2013, according to court records.

City News Service; Photo: Shutterstock