A former choir director, who landed on a list of the top 10 most wanted international fugitives for allegedly sexually assaulting a 13-year-old boy in Buena Park and then fleeing the country eight years ago, has been detained in the United Kingdom, according to the FBI.
3 of Top 10 Most Wanted International Fugitives Hail From Orange County
Roger Alan Giese, 39, was captured Tuesday and is now awaiting extradition, says FBI spokeswoman Laura Eimiller.
Giese was a choir director in 1998, when he met the Buena Park boy and befriended his family. Giese was able to move into the victim's home and the sex acts allegedly took place until 2002. Giese was arrested that year and charged with lewd acts with a child and penetration with a foreign object.
He was released on bond pending trial, and from 2002 until 2007, Giese appeared in court as scheduled. But he failed to show up for his pre-trial motions hearing on March 12, 2007, and the next day, he failed to appear for jury selection.
That prompted Orange County Superior Court Judge Francisco Briseno to issue a warrant for Giese's arrest. A federal arrest warrant was issued on March 16, 2007, after Giese was charged federally with unlawful flight to avoid prosecution. Records showed Giese had flown from Charlotte, North Carolina, to the Cayman Islands, according to the FBI warrant.
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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.