A 37-year-old part-time clown at children's parties pleaded not guilty Friday to allegedly sexually assaulting two girls ages 9 and 5.
Gualberto Torresvargas could get 175 years to life in prison if he is convicted of three counts of sexual intercourse or sodomy with a child 10 or younger, five counts of oral copulation or sexual penetration of a child 10 or younger, and two counts of lewd acts on a child younger than 14. The Huntington Beach resident also faces a sentence-enhancing allegation of multiple victims.
Orange County Deputy District Attorney Lexie Elliott stresses that Torresvargas did not meet the girls through his clown gig but, due to his close proximity to children on the job, investigators wonder if there are other victims. Anyone who suspects he may have preyed on other kids is asked to contact Supervising District Attorney Investigator Mark Gutierrez at 714.347.8794.
The case against Torresvargas brings to mind the one against Jose Guadalupe Jimenez. The professional clown known as “El Tin Marin” in 2012 admitted to raping a 12-year-old girl he'd snatched from in front of a Fullerton Taco Bell a decade earlier. See “JOSE GUADALUPE JIMENEZ, CLOWN CALLED “EL TIN MARIN,” GETS 10 YEARS FOR RAPING LITTLE GIRL.”
OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.