Child molester serves less than 10 months for crimes

A man originally accused of raping a young female family member for almost 10 years will be out of jail and on his way back to Mexico after serving less than six months in jail.

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Jose Garcia-Lopez, 41, recently pleaded guilty to a felony charge of second-degree sexual abuse of a minor and was sentenced to 10 months in prison. Garcia-Lopez has been incarcerated since his arrest in June. With time off for good behavior, he is expected to be released before the end of the month and be deported to Mexico.

Original charges against him included five felony counts of first-degree sexual abuse of a minor stemming from alleged sexual abuse against a now-17-year-old family member between 1990 and 1998. The girl's name wasn't released.

"Every time my mom left (a place), or we were left alone, or she took walks - it happened so many times that it was difficult to pinpoint when it all happened," the girl told a Juneau grand jury, according to court records.

In 1992, the girl's cousin said she saw Garcia-Lopez having sex with the victim, then age 7, the record said. The cousin went to police. When questioned, Garcia-Lopez denied the claim, the victim's mother said the cousin was lying and the 7-year-old victim denied anything happened.

But, in 1998, according to the court record, the victim said she "couldn't take it no more," and reported the abuse to police. Garcia-Lopez was arrested and arraigned but jumped bail and fled to Mexico, the record said. He was arrested on an outstanding police warrant in June when he came back to Juneau.

Assistant District Attorney Sue McLean said she recognized that the sentence seemed light given the crimes alleged against Garcia-Lopez. But she said the case was a difficult one to prosecute.

"The problem was the age of the case," said McLean in an interview. "Witnesses have gone away and memories have faded. ... All the victim wanted was for him to admit what he did to her and not ever to have to deal with him again. She got that. ... Sometimes the admission is what's important."

Assistant Public Defender Diane Foster could not be reached for comment on her client's case by the Empire's midday deadline.