Posted on 03/04/2005 4:59:24 PM PST by SweetCaroline
A Ventura County Superior Court judge threw out a case that could have sent a convicted child molester back to prison, because the victim has since died. Judge Bruce Clark dismissed the charges against Jack Sobonya, 54, formerly of Oxnard, after ruling that the case violated the statute of limitations for sexual assault.
The videotaped victim – then about 3 years old - shown being molested by Sobonya was killed last year in an automobile accident. Prosecutor Patrice Koenig asked that the judge allow the victim’s family to file charges on her behalf, or to allow the videotape to be used as a report of the abuse. Koenig said that the videotape is a complete record of the incident and could be used to prosecute Sobonya. Judge Clark ruled that the actual victim of the alleged sexual assault must file the report.
Sobonya was arrested in December after an Oxnard couple’s dog dug up decade-old Polaroid photographs and the videotape at Sobonya’s former Eagle Rock Avenue home, located in the Silver Strand area. From the videotapes and Polaroid photos uncovered by Lincoln – whose owners had lived in the house for about two months before the dog’s persistent digging had uncovered the items wrapped in plastic – detectives determined the child was molested sometime in 1993 at the Ojai home of Sobonya’s relative.
After the discovery of the materials, Ventura County Sheriff’s investigators found Sobonya living at Atascadero State Hospital. Sobonya had been living at the facility since March when he was released from prison – and paroled to Atascadero - after serving about 10 years of a 17-year sentence for an unrelated child molestation conviction. Sobonya pleaded guilty in early 1995 to kidnapping and molesting a different 3-year-old Ojai girl from her front yard, and to filming two other children performing lewd acts.
Along with Ojai and Oxnard, Sobonya reportedly also lived in or spent time in Santa Paula and Ventura prior to his mid-1990s conviction. Sobonya might have had other victims, and investigators are asking that anyone with information about possible molestations call the VCSD Major Crime Bureau at 477-7018.
THIS JUDGE NEEDS FREEPING!!!!!!
Just Damn!
What a b@$tard judge. I wonder if he sited 'International Law' in his opinion.
There should be no statute of limitations on sexual assault.
Freeping? I could think of a few more verbs I wish to substitute for freeping.
Why?
Judge Clark ruled that the actual victim of the alleged sexual assault must file the report.
Makes you wonder if he will require the murder victims to file a report before the murderer can be charged.
I hope and pray that anyone caught molesting one of mine wouldn't get one day in jail. BTW, I do believe in torture that goes far beyond panties on the head.
Why is damn good question, especially given that the victim was still a minor at the time of her death (if my math is correct) and the victim cannot file a report because she is dead. And, they've got the photographic evidence of the crime.
This is truly a sickening travesty of justice.
Only in a county in Pornifornicatia could this happen.
Too bad this didn't come up in Texas, cause he'd be in the express lane to CELL block D and a full dance card.
Mmm. Using this bit of logic a good defense lawyer could compel the judge to have a murder charge thrown out. My gosh. I hope this was an ELECTED judge and he can get rejected at the next election if not Disbarred for insanity on his own part!!
Sicko Ventura County Ping!
"ruling that the case violated the statute of limitations for sexual assault."
On what law did the judge base his conclusion? Did state law tie the judges hands, or did the judge twist the law just to give the defendant a free pass?
He needs more than that, I dare say.
Calling Paul Kersey...calling Paul Kersey...
A bloodhound who is now living in the house that Sobonya shared with the little girls mom at the time he was raping her dug up the video's and polaroids he took while he was.
He's currently in a mental hospital after serving 10 years for another charge of rape and will be released soon.
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