Man Receives 2 Years for Child Endangerment

A Burbank man who struggled with police and firefighters trying to stop him from jumping off a third-floor balcony with his infant daughter was sentenced Friday to two years in state prison for child endangerment.

Pasadena Superior Court Judge Jack Tso sentenced Rudolfo Regalado, 31, in the Dec. 22 incident at Regalado’s apartment on Naomi Street.

Authorities said Regalado was hanging over his apartment balcony, dangling his 4-month-old daughter, Raquel, and shouting in Spanish, “I’m going to let her go!” before two Burbank police officers restrained him and a Burbank firefighter grabbed the falling baby.

Police had been called to the apartment by Regalado’s wife, Yolanda, who reported that he had attacked her with a knife during an argument.

Regalado took his daughter onto the balcony when authorities arrived.

“He clearly wanted to kill himself and he was also threatening to jump with the child,” said Deputy Dist. Atty. Robert Nishinaka, who prosecuted the case. “They rushed him and they were able to grab him and the child.

“This basically was a family matter that really went bad. This child almost got killed.”

Regalado was also charged with attempted murder of his daughter. But in July, a jury acquitted him of the more serious charge and found him guilty of felony child endangerment.

Nishinaka said a presentencing mental evaluation of Regalado concluded that he should receive psychiatric care.

At the sentencing hearing, Regalado faced a maximum of six years in prison.

Nishinaka asked Tso to hand down a four-year term for Regalado.

Yolanda Regalado, who has custody of Raquel and the couple’s two other children, told the judge she had forgiven her husband and asked that he be placed on probation.

Under the two-year term, Regalado will be eligible for parole in 4 1/2 months because he has already spent 10 months in the County Jail, Nishinaka said.

Because Regalado will not be in prison for a long time, it is unlikely that he will be able to complete the psychiatric care program that was called for in the presentencing report, the prosecutor added.

“There is not a whole lot you can do in 4 1/2 months, to be honest,” Nishinaka said.

Nishinaka, however, said prison authorities can make psychiatric counseling a condition of parole if it is determined that Regalado still needs such care at the time he is released.