Charles Fernandez - Repeat Sex Offender - BabyRaper

A registered sex offender who was set to start trial this week in Santa Maria on new molestation charges is facing 16 years in prison after pleading no contest to one felony count of continuous sexual abuse of a child.

Charles Fernandez, 44, of Ridgecrest entered the plea — which has the same effect as a guilty plea in terms of sentencing — last month.

He will return to court July 15 for sentencing, said Chief Trial Deputy Stephen Foley.

Fernandez must serve 85 percent of his sentence before he is eligible for parole, Foley said.

Fernandez was charged with three counts of aggravated sexual assault, but two of the counts will be dismissed at his sentencing, under the plea agreement he entered into.

He was scheduled to begin trial earlier this week.

“Based on the facts of the case, and the desire of the victims, we felt it was a fair resolution and brought closure to the case,” Foley said.

According to earlier testimony for the prosecution in the case, Fernandez molested the son of a woman he dated from the time the boy was 7 and in the second grade until almost the end of the child’s fourth-grade year.

The victim is now 17 and living out of state, Foley said.

The abuse stopped, according to testimony in the case, when the boy’s mother ended her relationship with Fernandez.

She told authorities about the abuse in July 2007, shortly after her son told her about the molestation.

In 2005, Fernandez was convicted of sexually assaulting a different child, and was ordered to register as a sex offender in Kern County, according to the Santa Barbara County Sheriff's Department.

Because of Fernandez’s history of committing sexual offenses, he could be deemed a “sexually violent predator” around the time of his prison release date, Foley said.

If the court or a jury determines that Fernandez is a sexually violent predator, he will be housed at a mental-health facility until he is deemed no longer at risk of reoffending.

Fernandez’s attorney, Senior Deputy Public Defender Robert Ikola, could not be reached for comment.

"25% of all sex offenders re-offend within 15 years"
.........Sarah Tofte

"On average most sex offenders are never caught again for a new sex offense, after five years, between 10 and 15 percent of sex offenders are detected, often convicted, of committing a new sex offense. If you follow them for ten years the rates go up somewhat, if you follow them as long as we’ve been able to follow them, which is about 20 years, the rates go up to somewhere between 30 to 40 percent of the total sample will eventually be caught for a new sex offense."

Dr. R. Karl Hansen