Local News in Brief : Pasadena Man Pleads Guilty to Molestation
A Pasadena bank accountant pleaded guilty in San Fernando Superior Court Friday to sexually molesting a 10-year-old Canyon Country girl.
According to the terms of a plea bargain, Jose Santiago Palacios, 53, will be ordered to serve a maximum of three years in state prison when he appears for sentencing Sept. 27, Deputy Dist. Atty. Kenneth Loveman said. Palacios remains free on $20,000 bail until his sentencing.
Palacios, a native of Peru, pleaded guilty to one count of child molestation. He originally was charged with four counts of child molestation and two counts of forcible rape. The incidents involved the daughter of friends of Palacios from Peru and occurred between September, 1983, and July, 1984.
A jury heard a two-week trial on those charges. But Judge Robert D. Fratianne declared a mistrial on Tuesday when jurors reported they were hopelessly deadlocked, with 10 voting in favor of conviction, after three days of deliberation.
During the trial, Loveman read passages from the girl’s diary describing how she and a friend tried to tell her mother about the molestation.
Loveman said that, at the request of the girl’s family, he agreed to dismiss the additional charges in return for the guilty plea to one count.
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