Ex-skating rink employee convicted of child molestation gets probation

A former skate park employee who admitted to inappropriately playing with the feet of about 200 young boys at a Northridge skating rink was sentenced Monday to three years’ probation.

Julian Christopher Flores, 19, pleaded no contest in August to three counts of misdemeanor child molestation. As part of his sentence, he must also undergo one year of counseling and register as a sex offender.

Prior to sentencing, the father of one victim was allowed to address Flores. “This is a permanent tattoo that you have to live with for the rest of your life, like the innocence you took away from so many children,” he said.

He called Flores a “monster” who was “getting off easy.”

A letter from the mother of two of Flores’ victims also was read aloud in court. She said her children were still suffering, despite seeing a counselor for six months. They are “overly cautious befriending others in their age group” after being molested by Flores, the mother wrote.

Flores voluntarily went to the LAPD’s Devonshire Station to be questioned in December, a day after one boy told his grandmother about an encounter with Flores in a maintenance room at Northridge Skateland, according to court records.

Flores told police that had he not been interrupted, he would have had the victim rub his feet on his hands, according to court records. He also admitted to engaging in this type of behavior with about 200 boys at Skateland.

LAPD seized Flores’ laptop and cellphone after an interview in which he admitted to recording several of those incidents on his phone and then transferring them to his laptop, according to a search warrant affidavit.

Flores initially was charged with one count of false imprisonment and one count of a lewd act on a child. Flores would have faced up to eight years and four months in prison if convicted. Those charges were reduced as part of a plea agreement.