SP victims? Charges dropped against videotaped child molester

February 23, 2005
Santa Paula News

A Ventura County Superior Court judge threw out a case that could have sent a convicted child molester back to prison, because the victim has since died.

By Peggy KellySanta Paula TimesA Ventura County Superior Court judge threw out a case that could have sent a convicted child molester back to prison, because the victim has since died. Judge Bruce Clark dismissed the charges against Jack Sobonya, 54, formerly of Oxnard, after ruling that the case violated the statute of limitations for sexual assault.The videotaped victim – then about 3 years old - shown being molested by Sobonya was killed last year in an automobile accident. Prosecutor Patrice Koenig asked that the judge allow the victim’s family to file charges on her behalf, or to allow the videotape to be used as a report of the abuse. Koenig said that the videotape is a complete record of the incident and could be used to prosecute Sobonya. Judge Clark ruled that the actual victim of the alleged sexual assault must file the report.
Sobonya was arrested in December after an Oxnard couple’s dog dug up decade-old Polaroid photographs and the videotape at Sobonya’s former Eagle Rock Avenue home, located in the Silver Strand area. From the videotapes and Polaroid photos uncovered by Lincoln – whose owners had lived in the house for about two months before the dog’s persistent digging had uncovered the items wrapped in plastic – detectives determined the child was molested sometime in 1993 at the Ojai home of Sobonya’s relative.After the discovery of the materials, Ventura County Sheriff’s investigators found Sobonya living at Atascadero State Hospital. Sobonya had been living at the facility since March when he was released from prison – and paroled to Atascadero - after serving about 10 years of a 17-year sentence for an unrelated child molestation conviction. Sobonya pleaded guilty in early 1995 to kidnapping and molesting a different 3-year-old Ojai girl from her front yard, and to filming two other children performing lewd acts.Along with Ojai and Oxnard, Sobonya reportedly also lived in or spent time in Santa Paula and Ventura prior to his mid-1990s conviction. Sobonya might have had other victims, and investigators are asking that anyone with information about possible molestations call the VCSD Major Crime Bureau at 477-7018.



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