California kidnap victim faces credibility test

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SANTA ANA, Calif. (AP) — Neighbors say Isidro Garcia is a
doting father, loyal husband and good provider for his family. That
doesn’t mean he’s not all the things prosecutors say he is: an abusive
rapist who kidnapped a 15-year-old girl and eventually made her his
wife.
The narrative that unfolded around the couple this week in a
Los Angeles suburb spans a decade, but the criminal case against Garcia
centers on a three-month period when he is accused of grooming the teen
through sexual abuse and taking her from her Santa Ana home.
Authorities
focused on the early allegations of abuse because they occurred in the
county and are not subject to a statute of limitations, according to
Whitney Bokosky, deputy district attorney for Orange County. She said
the charges may be amended or expanded as the case moves forward.
"Nobody
is saying this girl was tied up in some basement somewhere. This was
more of a mental kind of prison she was living in," Bokosky said.
Garcia, 41, is charged with rape, kidnapping and three counts of lewd acts on a child dating back to
2004.
A
lawyer for Garcia, who is being held on $1 million bail, said the woman
lied about being abused because the couple is separating.
Police
say Garcia, who had been dating the girl’s mother, drugged and abducted
the victim, telling her that her family wasn’t looking for her and that
if she contacted authorities, she would be deported. In 2007, he forced
her to marry and fathered a daughter, now 3, with her, police said.
Garcia
was arrested Monday after the woman, now 25, went two blocks from her
apartment to a police station in Los Angeles County’s Bell Gardens and
accused him of domestic violence. Authorities then connected her to a
2004 missing person report filed by her mother. Police have not
identified the woman.
The story has transfixed many who wonder how
the woman could keep quiet for so long, and it prompted comparisons to
other high-profile kidnappings, including one involving three women who
were locked up in Cleveland and broke free after about a decade.
While
police said Garcia initially locked up the woman, she later got a job,
had her own car and neighbors said they seemed like a loving couple.
Steve
Meister, a criminal defense attorney and former Los Angeles County
prosecutor, said the lack of charges stemming from the years the woman
lived with Garcia and neighbors’ reports that she appeared happy
highlight potential challenges to her credibility.
"In any case,
but especially a sexual assault case, you can’t pick and choose what of
the victim’s story you want to believe. You either believe them or you
don’t," Meister said. "That’s how district attorneys should analyze it
because that is how a jury is going to see it."
Lawrence
Rosenthal, a professor at Chapman University’s Fowler School of Law,
said he believes the victim’s age and the statute of limitations
influenced how prosecutors approached the case. Some prosecutors might
have pursued additional rape charges, he said, but not all, adding that
kidnapping carries a potential life sentence.
"Other prosecutors
would say it is a waste of time — I’ve got a slam-dunk on plenty of
serious charges," Rosenthal said, adding that he tells his law students
to think about criminal cases like movies.
"I tell them you want
to pick the frame of the film you think is the easiest to charge, and it
may be the prosecutors have approached this case in the same way."
Since
Garcia’s arrest, neighbors of the couple have rushed to his defense,
describing him as dedicated family man. Law enforcement officials have
cautioned against blaming the victim.
The case bears some
similarities to the story of Pennsylvania teen Tanya Kach, who ran away
with a security guard and only broke away after spending years locked in
a bedroom as his captive, said Lawrence H. Fisher, a lawyer who
represented Kach in a civil suit and co-authored a book with her. The
guard is now serving a five- to 15-year prison sentence after pleading
guilty to sex assault and other charges in 2007.
In both cases,
the public was initially elated to learn of the miracle recovery of a
missing child but then began questioning the victim, he said.
"People
have a hard time putting themselves in the victim’s shoes," he said.
"No matter what anyone has to say about this young lady out in
California, she has nothing but a better future ahead of her."

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