San Mateo County Times
REDWOOD CITY — A Daly City man accused of housing a teenage girl in the basement of his parents' home and molesting her hundreds of times will face up to 20 years in prison after copping a plea on Wednesday to more than a dozen felony counts of child abuse and domestic violence.
John France Gonzales, a 23-year-old former pharmacy technician, had been charged with 142 felonies, including more than 100 counts of child abuse, many involving sodomy and oral copulation.
Prosecutors slapped Gonzales with every possible felony count to hold him accountable for more than 500 occasions of sexual conduct with the victim, according to Morley Pitt, San Mateo County's assistant district attorney.
But the district attorney's office had always planned to reduce the multiple felony charges against Gonzales as long as he accepted responsibility for his criminal behavior, Pitt said.
Prior to the plea bargain, Gonzales faced up to 132 years in prison, according to the prosecutor. Now he will spend no more than 20 years in prison.
"It's a fair resolution that will enable the victim to hopefully move on with her life and not face the terrible specter of having to testify and relive what went on in her life when she was a teenager," Pitt said.
Gonzales met the girl in 2000, when she was 10 years old and living in San Bruno with her aunt, whom Gonzales was dating, according to former defense attorney Jeffery Neubarth.
Prosecutors say hat Gonzales molested the girl for the first time when she was 12 and maintained his relationship with the girl for several years while she lived in San Bruno and with her grandmother in Healdsburg. Gonzales allegedly took the girl from her grandmother's home in August 2005 and told her that she could not return, eventually moving her into a bedroom at his parents' Daly City home in October 2005, according to prosecutors. The victim's grandmother had filed a missing persons report in August, shortly after her granddaughter was taken away by Gonzales. But the girl remained in the home of Gonzales' parents for at least one year. Gonzales' parents were unaware that the girl was living in their home, according to Chief Deputy District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe, because they lived upstairs and never visited the bottom portion of the house. Neighbors also denied knowledge of the situation, claiming they never saw a teenage girl at the house, Wagstaffe said. Gonzales' brother was aware that the girl was living in his family's home, but he thought the girl was living in the basement of her own free will, Wagstaffe said. Prosecutors have not charged his brother with a crime. The girl remained with Gonzales until October 2006 when Gonzales' parents' home was foreclosed on, forcing Gonzales to move out and return the girl to her family. A few weeks after returning home, she told members of her family of her ordeal. The victim, who prosecutors say initially went willingly to Gonzales' home, reportedly told authorities she and Gonzales had sexual relations more than 500 times in five counties. The District Attorney's office never charged Gonzales with kidnapping because the girl went to his house on her own volition, said Wagstaffe. Gonzales believed that he and the girl had been "happy together," sharing a relationship that was "almost" like boyfriend and girlfriend, according to former defense attorney Jeffrey Neubarth. The victim is currently living with her family, prosecutors said. Gonzales, who remains in custody in lieu of $1 million bail, is expected to return to Superior Court on July 23 for a hearing to set his sentencing date.
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