A 23-year-old Anaheim man decided yesterday afternoon to use an Orange County public library for illegal sex, according to Tustin police.
The scenario gets more disturbing.
A 13-year-old boy had gone to the library after school to study, but ended up a rape victim.
Police say Robert Howard Claudio sodomized the unidentified kid inside a library bathroom located at 345 E. Main Street.
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Tustin PD Lt. Pat Welch said in a prepared statement that the boy managed to free himself, run for help and underwent medical treatment.
Welch's
report claims that the 5-foot-3 and 115-pound Claudio identified
himself as a previously registered sex offender and was taken
into custody.
A check of the online Megan's Law sex offenders database won't locate Claudio's entry. His prior sex crime conviction happened before he became an adult, according to police. Juvenile offenders are not included in the state's searchable database.
Records show Claudio is being held inside the Orange County Jail
with, at least at the moment, no chance for bail. The pending charges
include sodomy of a minor, and lewd and lascivious conduct with a child
under 14 years old. He's scheduled to appear in court on March 13.
Tustin PD wants possible witnesses to contact Investigator Pam Hardacre at 714-573-3248.
It is a serious crime for an adult to engage in any sexual activities with a minor, especially ones who are under 14 years old.
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CNN-featured investigative reporter R. Scott Moxley has won Journalist of the Year honors at the Los Angeles Press Club; been named Distinguished Journalist of the Year by the LA Society of Professional Journalists; obtained one of the last exclusive prison interviews with Charles Manson disciple Susan Atkins; won inclusion in Jeffrey Toobin’s The Best American Crime Reporting for his coverage of a white supremacist’s senseless murder of a beloved Vietnamese refugee; launched multi-year probes that resulted in the FBI arrests and convictions of the top three ranking members of the Orange County Sheriff’s Department; and gained praise from New York Times Magazine writers for his “herculean job” exposing entrenched Southern California law enforcement corruption.