Man Gets 1 Year for Beating, Binding Girl

A Van Nuys man who bound his underage girlfriend and her 2-year-old daughter with duct tape when the woman tried to break off their relationship was sentenced to a year in jail, the city attorney’s office said Tuesday.

Rogelio Gutierrez, 20, was sentenced Monday by Van Nuys Municipal Judge Michael Mink, after pleading no contest to spousal battery and false imprisonment.

At the sentencing hearing, Gutierrez admitted to violating his probation from a May 1998 spousal battery conviction involving the same victim, said Los Angeles City Atty. James Hahn.

Gutierrez’s latest plea stems from arguments that erupted July 19, 1998, at the Van Nuys apartment he shared with his 16-year-old girlfriend, her 2-year-old daughter and their 4-month-old daughter .

Deputy City Atty. J. Steven Blumin said Gutierrez beat his girlfriend twice and also bound her hands and legs with duct tape. In the second incident, the 2-year-old was severely bruised after she was bound with duct tape.

Prosecutors said that despite the girlfriend’s age at the time of the offense, no statutory rape charges were filed.