UPDATE NO. 2, MARCH 5, 5:07 P.M.: Orange County Superior Court Judge W. Michael Hayes this afternoon denied several defense motions to toss the child annoyance case against Luther Pete Haynes on grounds the 62-year-old's rights to a speedy trial were violated, City News Service reports.
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UPDATE NO. 1, MARCH 5, 2:16 P.M.: Jurors today found Luther Pete Haynes guilty of child annoyance, which sets the 62-year-old up for a possible sentence of 25 years to life in state prison. However, Orange County Superior Court Judge W. Michael Hayes is this afternoon considering a motion to toss the case based on a claim that the defendant's rights to a speedy trial were violated, City News Service reports.
ORIGINAL POST, MARCH 5, 7:03 A.M.: A man who married a Filipino woman when she was 18 and bounced back and forth between homes in the U.S. and the Philippines is being tried in Orange County for allegedly exposing himself to the 11-year-old daughter of a colleague … 20 years ago.
Luther Pete Haynes, 62, faces up to 25 years to life in prison if he is convicted of felony child annoyance due to his two prior convictions for lewd acts on victims younger than 14, according to Deputy District Attorney Kristin Bracic.
The prosecutor explained it has taken so long to prosecute Haynes because he left for the Philippines in 1995 and didn't come back.
On Jan. 14 of that same year, Haynes allegedly exposed himself to the girl while taking photos of her in Fountain Valley. Her father worked with Haynes at a San Clemente-based paleontology firm.
Haynes claims he did not know authorities were looking for him.
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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.