Posted on 09/01/2008 4:15:58 AM PDT by csvset
OAKLAND — A 61-year-old Orinda real estate executive and former Saint Mary's College professor pleaded guilty Friday morning to producing child pornography in a case in which he traveled to Costa Rica to have sex with a 12-year-old girl.
Leonard Auerbach faces a minimum sentence of 15 years in prison and a maximum of 30 years.
No family members or friends attended the hearing. Auerbach, dressed in a red Alameda County Jail jumpsuit, answered the judge's questions with simple "Yes, sir," responses.
In April, Auerbach fled the country after charges were initially filed. After being named a "most wanted" fugitive by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he was arrested in Cuba by local authorities in May and extradited back to the United States in June. Cuba and the United States do not have an extradition treaty; Cuba expelled him because of the "grave" nature of his crimes, according to U.S. immigration officials.
From 2003 to 2007, Auerbach traveled to a house he owned in Costa Rica about 40 times. Images found at his Orinda home in August 2007 included child pornography taken in Costa Rica in 2004 when the girl in the images was 12, according to the indictment and an ICE news release.
Auerbach also referred to her as his "girlfriend," admitted her age and said in a secretly recorded conversation in July 2007 that he had sex with her, according to immigration officials. The $540,000 Costa Rica house was seized by the U.S. government.
Auerbach has two sons who attended Miramonte High School and recently graduated from college. His sons ran track at Miramonte and Auerbach volunteered with the team, said coach Brian Henderson.
"He was one of the most supportive and outgoing and vocal supporters of the team," said Henderson, adding that he never saw any hints of inappropriate behavior from Auerbach.
"The whole thing was very surprising, very shocking," Henderson said.
Auerbach was well-respected in the mortgage industry, said Rob Christman, who worked with Auerbach from 1988 to 1996.
"He was somewhat abrasive but very, very intelligent and very canny," Christman said.
Auerbach served on the faculty of Saint Mary's College from 1975 to 1990, and he was on UC Berkeley Haas School of Business faculty from 1973 to 1983.
Since then, he has served as president or director of several real estate and consulting companies. More recently, Auerbach had been "on the sidelines," Christman said.
When Auerbach fled to Cuba, Christman got an e-mail from him bragging that he had escaped arrest.
"I am in some kind of Paradise here and I'm so safe, it's laughable," Chrisman said Auerbach wrote in one e-mail.
Auerbach's lawyer, Paul Wolf of Oakland, said he had no comment on the plea deal other than to be "sorry to see it happen to him and his family."
"In other ways, Lenny lived an admirable life," Wolf said.
Prosecutor Andrew Huang referred questions to the U.S. Attorney's office spokesman, who did not respond to phone calls Friday. Auerbach will be sentenced Nov. 14.
"I am in some kind of Paradise here and I'm so safe, it's laughable,"
The last laugh was on you chump. Even the Cuban Commies were repulsed.
No family members or friends attended the hearing.
As it should be. Who could defend a sorry sack of chit like this?
He was a Dem donor
I’ve never understood sick bastards like this. Why try to get “it” from a child when there are a few grown women at the local bars who wouldn’t mind a one night stand?
Unfortunately UC Berkeley Haas School of Law is an indoctrination center for lefty lawyers. Anyone ever tracking the contributions to Dems and Dem Causes will always find not only Haas, but a million "graduates" of Haas contributing to Dem campaigns as "legal foundations, legal groups" and/or as private individuals, and sometimes they contribute to the same under "both". The anti-Prop 54 contributors listing was a hoot: Same individuals (graduate Haas), contributing to the opposition campaign (against Ward Connerly's Prop 54) contributing to Dems under individual names, non-profit name, legal corporation name, special lobbying interest name.
Some law school...
Twelve years old? Just respecting the local cultural standards...
< /sarc >
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