Jul 2, 2008

Man pleads no contest to sexual assault

13-year-old girl reported attack six months later

By Michael Manekin / Bay Area News Group

A former janitor at an East Palo Alto elementary school could face up to six years in prison for sexually assaulting a 13-year-old student in the school's cafeteria.

Octabiano Ayala, 48, of East Palo Alto, pleaded no contest in May to one felony count of lewd and lascivious behavior with a child under the age of 14 with a special allegation that he engaged in substantial sexual conduct by use of force. He is expected to be sentenced in July.

Prosecutors say Ayala brutally raped the girl, who was then a student at the school, one day after school in March 2006.

Ayala, who was well-known among the students for offering candy to the children, approached his victim when she was alone in the cafeteria and offered the girl a handful of money, prosecutors said.

Then he forced the girl to the ground, pinned her with one hand and pulled down his pants with the other hand, according to prosecutors. The rape lasted three minutes, they said.

"He got up and walked away as if nothing happened," Chief Deputy District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe said.

The victim didn't report the incident until six months later, Wagstaffe said.

Prosecutors could not confirm the name of the elementary school, but the girl's mother, whose name is being withheld by the Bay Area News Group to protect the victim, said the attack took place at Costano Elementary School in East Palo Alto.

Her daughter, then a student at the school, finally confessed the attack after being confronted by family members concerned about her suddenly changed behavior.

"My daughter's not the same anymore," the victim's mother said. "She's mean, she's unhappy, she's doing things that are self-destructive."

Police began investigating the case several months after the attack, and the janitor denied at first that he assaulted the girl. After Ayala finally admitted to the attack, he was arraigned in September on criminal charges, prosecutors said.

Prosecutors charged him with felony rape and child abuse charges. But Ayala, who faced up to 16 years in prison for those charges, pleaded guilty on May 23 to the child abuse in exchange for a maximum of six years in prison.

"What (Ayala) did was wrong," the victim's mother said, explaining that she knew of the janitor as a longtime employee at the school. "I've sent a few of my children to that school, and I never expected him to rape one of them.

"This happened on the school campus with their employee," she added. "My daughter should have been safe there."

Ayala is expected to be sentenced July 29 in San Mateo County Superior Court in Redwood City. He remains in custody in lieu of $200,000 bail.