A Santa Ana woman who went into hiding instead of testifying against her husband in a child molestation case involving her own daughters is sentenced to jail.
The Orange County Register reports that a Santa Ana mother was held in contempt of court today and sentenced to five days in jail for going into hiding with her two daughters so she would not have to testify at her husband's child molestation trial in April. The daughters, ages 18 and 15, were the alleged molestation victims.
As a result of the woman's failure to appear in court, the case against her husband was dismissed. As such, Superior Court Judge William L. Evans felt jail was a more appropriate sentence as opposed to the small fine suggested by the woman's criminal defense attorney.
The woman, who is not being identified due to the fact that the molestation allegations involve her children, said in a signed affidavit that she did not make it to court "because my daughters got cold feet and hesitated to testify, and I did not feel it was appropriate for me to force them to testify against their will. I did not know what to do in that regard so I could not appear myself."
Up until the time they disappeared, the woman and her daughters were cooperating with prosecutors.
The woman's husband, Jose Arriaza Magana, 33, was arrested in May 2008 and charged with eight counts of lewd and lascivious acts upon children after the younger girl told her mother he had molested her in late 2007.
The case first made headlines when a prosecutor accused a public defender of hiding the mother and daughters in order to win a dismissal of the case against Magana.
When authorities were unable to find the woman and the daughters, the judge had to dismiss the case. Also, the fact that a jury had already been sworn in meant that double jeopardy attached and, as such, Magana could not be retried.
Magana was facing a potential sentence of 19 years, 8 months in prison had he been convicted on all counts at trial.
Author's name: Gabriel Dorman
Author's e-mail: gabedorman@gmail.com
Author's blog URL: www.criminaldefenseduilawyer.com/blog/
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