Molestation Victim Faces MTA Driver

For 23 years he had waited to confront his molester, and on Thursday he did, tearily telling Anthony Zaragoza how the molestation had nearly moved him to take his own life.

“I just want you to know, Mr. Zaragoza, you took away something I could never regain,” the 34-year-old man said during a sentencing hearing in Los Angeles Superior Court. “God forgive you for the sickness you have. It caused me pain, filthiness, shame. I don’t wish this on anybody.”

There was no doubt about Zaragoza’s sentence. In a plea agreement with prosecutors, the MTA bus driver, 49, was sentenced Thursday to nearly 30 years in prison.

The remarks by the man identified as John Doe 2 were not delivered to sway the judge. They were for Zaragoza, a Quartz Hill resident who hid his face behind his hands as the young man spoke.

“Thank you, everyone involved in this case, for having closure in my life,” the man began.

As an 11-year-old boy in April 1979, the man and his then-13-year-old brother met Zaragoza as he drove a Montebello bus. Several years of sexual assaults on the younger brother followed. Zaragoza became friends with the brothers’ family. He also molested the older brother, who is now a police officer.

Then last year, Los Angeles police arrested Zaragoza for molesting a 15-year-old North Carolina boy on a Metropolitan Transportation Authority bus. The boy, a tourist, used his video camera to capture audio of Zaragoza propositioning him.

Zaragoza faced one of his accusers Thursday and apologized.

“I just want to say, I pray to my creator that he forgive me for all I’ve done, I am truly sorry for all the hurt I have done,” he said.

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Craig E. Veals sentenced Zaragoza to 29 years. He will serve a minimum of 19.

He pleaded guilty Monday to three charges involving the 15-year-old boy he met on the MTA bus last June, along with nine counts involving the two brothers.