We’ve got some catching up to do.
For the reintroduction of this weekly feature, we have broken up recent cases in these categories: Sentenced, Convicted, Charged, Accused and Sought.
Under the first two headings you will find: a sick sodomizer, a female teacher who drugged a male student to have sex with him, a date who turned consensual sex into non-consensual violence and a fortysomething man who ran off with his girlfriend’s underage daughter, had illegal sex with her and later married and impregnated her.
We move on to categories covering unknown criminals and folks who are innocent until proven guilty: alleged molesters of two stepdaughters and a boy and a girl relatives; an accused girl grabber; a claimed-to-be confessed public masturbator; a youth coach reported to possess child porn; gropers of lady shoppers; and a frat that may more accurately be named I Felta Delta if you believe allegations against it.
Part of the reason we publish this feature is to warn the public of who is out there, or will be once their sentences are completed. Those who know about outgoing cases are asked to contact investigating agencies.
Blaise Ryan Christie recently pleaded guilty to two felony counts of sodomy by force and was sentenced to 16 years in state prison. The 33-year-old Garden Grove man placed craigslist ads in September or October of 2014 and met women ages 20 and 24 through the service. He had consensual sex with the pair on separate occasions, but during the encounters he forced them to have anal sex, according to prosecutors. As the Weekly previously reported, Christie produces crude, violent porn and has been accused by some women in the adult industry of having lured them with model shoot ads before sexually assaulting and exploiting them. Those previous allegations produced no charges, however.
Michelle Yeh, a substitute science teacher who got a four-year prison sentence in part for boozing and drugging a 15-year-old student to get him to have sex with her, is now being sued by the boy. Yeh, 29, pleaded no contest in January to multiple felony and misdemeanor charges stemming from the molestation of at least three students. Besides prison time, she must register as a sex offender for life. The boy suing her met the sub in his 10th grade biology class at San Pedro High School. He alleges she flirted with him, showed him favoritism, bought him tennis shoes and video games and took him to Disneyland and restaurants. Things escalated, and after giving the boy alcohol, marijuana and prescription drugs such as Xanax, she would have sex with him, according to the suit. Filed in Los Angeles Superior County by the boy’s mother on his behalf, the suit seeks unspecified damages from Yeh for “irreparable harm” to the teen and the school district that used to employ her for “negligence.”
Babak “Bobby” Azadgilani was recently convicted of raping a woman in her Laguna Beach home and an ex-girlfriend in his home in 2013. The then-41- and 22-year-old victims are “very different” and did not know each other, but in both cases the 28-year-old Laguna Niguel man persisted and persisted until he got each woman alone and then strangled and hit them in the face during sex, according to Deputy District Attorney Lexie Elliott. Jurors found Azadgilani guilty of two counts of rape and one count of forcible oral copulation, and found true sentencing enhancements for multiple victims and the use of a knife in one of the attacks. He was acquitted of a felony count of forced sodomy. Azadgilani could get a life sentence on March 25.
Isidro Medrano Garcia, the 42-year-old Bell Gardens man who was accused of abducting his former live-in girlfriend’s teenage daughter in Santa Ana and sexually assaulting her over 10 years—ultimately marrying and impregnating her—was recently acquitted of kidnapping but convicted of committing lewd acts on a child. After the Fullerton jury deadlocked 9-3 in favor of guilt on a rape charge, Senior Deputy District Attorney Whitney Bokosky dropped that count. Garcia faces up to four years and four months in prison when he is sentenced April 15, and he will have to register for the rest of his life as a sex offender, according to Bokosky. Garcia, who was looking at the possibility of life in prison if convicted on all counts, earlier rejected an eight-year prison deal on the kidnapping. Another unusual twist in the trial was Bokosky seeking to have former kidnapping victim Elizabeth Smart-Gilmour testify as an expert witness because, he argued, her abduction in Utah bore similarities to the alleged kidnapping in Garcia’s case. But Orange County Superior Court Judge Michael Leversen refused to grant the prosecution’s request.
Lucas Radilla is being held without bail after being accused recently of molesting his two stepdaughters. The 30-year-old Garden Grove resident faces seven counts of lewd acts on a minor younger than 14 and one count of oral copulation of a victim younger than 14, along with sentence-enhancing allegations of more than one victim and substantial sexual conduct, according to court records. His alleged victims, ages 12 and 15, were molested between November 2011 and November 2014, according to Garden Grove Police Lt. Bob Bogue, who claims Radilla admitted to cops he touched one of the girls.
Victor Carmen Manriquez-Fernandez faces 20 felony charges—including sodomy, forcible lewd acts on a child and lewd or lascivious acts with minors—for alleged sexual assaults in Salinas and San Juan Capistrano of two family members: a boy, now 13, and a girl, now 16. Noting the alleged attacks date back to 2002, Deputy District Attorney Karyn Stokke claims the boy was sodomized “numerous times” before telling his parents in July 2013. Defense attorney Bob Mueller counters there are no eyewitnesses or physical evidence to back up the children’s claims, however. The defense is also trying to suppress evidence of child pornography on Manriquez-Fernandez’s electronic devices. The prosecution alleges he took photos of the boy’s naked rear when he was in preschool and told him others would be shown the pictures if he did not do what the adult wanted.
Jonathan Cho is accused of kidnapping for allegedly grabbing a 12-year-old girl in Santa Ana as she was on her way to a school program. The 26-year-old has been charged with felony kidnapping a child younger than 14. The girl was walking to “Saturday school” about 8 a.m. when a man asked her the time and then grabbed her wrist, according to police. She managed to break free and run on North Flower Street toward her home as the man chased her for about three blocks, police said. The girl made it to a family member in time and, as it turned out, officers had made contact with Cho earlier in the day and found him nearby, police said. Court records indicate Cho pleaded guilty in December 2012 to second-degree robbery and was sentenced to five years in prison.
Bradley Meenahan pleaded not guilty recently to masturbating and exposing himself in the children’s section of the Barnes & Noble bookstore at the Bella Terra shopping center in Huntington Beach on Feb. 23. Officers originally had a hard time finding the 51-year-old transient, who left the store after being confronted by a manager. Police arrived, collected evidence and arrested Meenahan on Feb. 25 at a Dana Point home. He reportedly told investigators he lives out of a van in the Venice Beach area and that he had touched himself in public at more than 20 places in Southern California over the previous month. A registered sex offender, Meenahan has a lengthy criminal history for sex crimes, according to police, who ask anyone with information about him to call officers at 714.375.5066.
Robert Warden Phillips recently pleaded not guilty in federal court to possession and distribution of child pornography. The 65-year-old Lake Forest man coached 12- to 14-year-old girls in an American Youth Soccer Organization league in the fall of 2014, but none of his players are depicted in the child porn he possessed, according to U.S. Attorney’s office spokesman Thom Mrozek. The AYSO made Phillips ineligible to coach once officials were apprised of the allegations. Authorities seized three computers, an iPad, an iPhone and several other media devices from his home in June of last year, when two of the computers and a thumb drive were found to contain images of child pornography, according to an indictment. Released on $50,000 bond, Phillips is due in Judge James Selna’s Santa Ana courtroom for a hearing on March 14.
The national headquarters of the Kappa Sigma fraternity suspended its Long Beach State frat chapter because police are investigating a student’s allegation that she was sexually assaulted at a frat party. No arrests have been made in what Long Beach Police called “an isolated incident” at “an off-campus fraternity function.” The party was attended by males and females, and police believe alcohol was served. The alleged victim said she did not know the suspect, who is in his early 20s. Anyone with information on the case is urged to call the Long Beach Police Department’s Special Victims Section at 562.570.7368.
A white man is being sought by Tustin Police for coming up from behind a woman and grabbing her by the waist. Surveillance images from Ralphs at 13321 Jamboree Road show the man following the woman as she shopped as well as when she exited the grocery store on Feb. 24. She had driven home and was walking to her apartment between 6:30-6:45 p.m. when she was grabbed, resisted and struggled with the stranger before he ran to a silver Scion two-door coupe and sped off. He is further described as 20 to 30, thin, about 5-foot-8 with curly or very short brown hair. Anyone with information about the guy or the incident is asked to contact Tustin Police Detective Lomeli at 714.573.3250.
Anonymous tips may be made to Orange County Crime Stoppers at 855.847.6227 (855-TIP-OCCS), via occrimestoppers.org or by texting to 274637 (C-R-I-M-E-S) from a cell phone. (All text messages should begin with the letters “OCCS”.)
