‘No Contest’ Plea in Court by Man Who Took Child

A Vietnamese baker who had pleaded innocent to charges of kidnaping a 3-year-old Laotian refugee in January entered a plea of no contest Friday to reduced charges of “child stealing” and will be sentenced May 16.

With an interpreter at his side, Loc Quang Le, 32, nodded his head when asked by Municipal Court Judge H. Ronald Domnitz if he agreed with allegations made against him in the disappearance of Santi (Ole) Khamtong.

“(Le) did not act appropriately under our laws and did not do what he should have done . . . but this is not a classic case of kidnaping,” Le’s attorney, Gerald Blank, told Domnitz.

Ole Khamtong was found unharmed in a Tijuana orphanage on Jan. 30, two days after he was last seen playing in front of his mother’s Linda Vista apartment. Le, a Linda Vista resident, was arrested on Jan. 31, after reportedly telling police that he had driven the boy across the international border, given him $20 and left him with a randomly selected Mexican family.

Ole’s disappearance prompted a massive search effort throughout Linda Vista, where a majority of San Diego’s 40,000 Indochinese refugees live. Ole was found only after Le allegedly admitted to police that he had taken the boy. Le then returned to Tijuana with detectives, who found Ole in the Tijuana House for Abandoned Children.

While the motives behind Le’s alleged actions have never been made clear, detectives have described the case as a “refugee Peyton Place.” Le’s Laotian wife is a close friend of Ole’s 23-year-old mother, Soutchay Khamtong, whom Le frequently visited. Le had reportedly taken the boy for several hours on other occasions without Soutchay Khamtong’s authorization.

Dressed in a sport coat and slacks and wearing thick eyeglasses, Le appeared calm but timid Friday while providing barely audible, one-word responses to Domnitz’s questions.

“Do you have any questions about what you are doing today . . . about what is happening here today?” Domnitz asked.

“No,” Le said, looking at his interpreter rather than the judge.

On his attorney’s advice, Le declined to discuss the case outside the courtroom.

Le has remained free on $7,500 bail since his arrest. He faces a maximum three-year prison sentence and $10,000 fine.