Former Imperial cop gets 8 years for child sex abuse

EL CENTRO — Imperial resident and one-time police officer Ray Valenzuela Jr. was sentenced on Friday to serve eight years in prison for sexually abusing a 13-year-old boy in December 2017.

Prior to his sentencing, Valenzuela and the court were addressed by the victim’s parents, who chastised Valenzuela for the pain and suffering he has caused.

“If you love your children you should stop because your children are being affected by it,” the victim’s mother said. “You did not just do it to my son; you did it to all of us.”

“We want to tell you to stop hurting young boys,” the victim’s father said. “Wherever you go, please change your ways, not only for yourself but for your family.”

The victim’s father also confided to the court that he and Valenzuela are related and that he didn’t want anything bad to happen to Valenzuela in the future.

While he addressed the court, the victim’s father looked directly at Valenzuela, who in turn met his gaze. When county Superior Court Judge Christopher Plourd subsequently asked Valenzuela whether he cared to address the victim’s parents or the court, he chose not to do so.

Later, as he was being escorted out of the courtroom following sentencing, Valenzuela looked toward the members of the victim’s family in the gallery and appeared to have placed his hand over his heart while mouthing some inaudible words. The victim was not present for Friday’s court hearing.

Valenzuela had pleaded guilty on Sept. 19 to one felony count of having sodomized a minor under the age of 14 who is more than 10 years younger than the defendant.

The victim had previously testified during a preliminary hearing on July 2 that he had oral and anal sex at his home with an unknown man with whom he had exchanged messages on the social media app Grindr, which is used primarily by gay men.

The victim previously testified that he notified the man through Grindr that he was only 13 years old and that the man had showed up at his home shortly afterward.

Valenzuela’s guilty plea was part of a deal that resulted in the dismissal of three additional felony counts that he had faced in connection to his Feb. 22 arrest at his place of business in El Centro.

Those charges included committing a forcible lewd act with a child, forcible oral copulation with a person under 14 years old and meeting a minor for the purposes of committing a lewd act.

Prior to sentencing, San Diego-based defense attorney Kerry Armstrong briefly addressed the court in an effort to gain his client some leniency.

“He owned up to what he did,” Armstrong said.

Following sentencing, Armstrong requested that Valenzuela be incarcerated at Donovan Correctional Facility in San Diego, where its special needs yard would better accommodate Valenzuela.

Plourd indicated that he would make the request on Valenzuela’s behalf but that ultimately the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation would decide where to incarcerate Valenzuela.

During sentencing, Plourd’s remarks about the case and underlying crime were limited to acknowledging the “significant amount of harm” Valenzuela caused to the victim’s immediate and extended family, as well as the potential harm that could’ve resulted to the victim had the case gone forward to trial.

“The harm and devastation that this conduct occasions upon children is enormous, but if put through the criminal justice system it could’ve been worse,” Plourd said.

Plourd also alluded to Valenzuela’s “significant history” of abusing children and the fact that Valenzuela had faced additional charges in connection to a separate criminal case that was recently dismissed after authorities were no longer able to contact the alleged victim, a resident of Mexicali.

That case had been filed months after Valenzuela’s initial Feb. 22 arrest and stemmed from allegations that Valenzuela had committed a lewd act and sodomy with an unidentified male juvenile between January 2006 and December 2006, the court complaint stated.

In that case, Valenzuela had faced one count of a forcible lewd act on a child and one count of sodomy of a person under the age of 18, both felonies

Valenzuela’s eightyear prison term represents the upper term allowable under sentencing guidelines for that particular charge. He was also given 276 days credit for the amount of time he has been incarcerated to date.

Valenzuela was also ordered to register for life as a sex offender and to submit to blood tests to determine the possible presence of antibodies related to HIV.

A county Probation Department report submitted to the court Tuesday as part of the Valenzuela’s sentencing phase stated that he had an “average risk” of committing a similar offense upon release.

The probation report also stated that Valenzuela did not show any remorse for his actions and that his crime constituted a “pattern” and an increase in severity and harm.

Valenzuela was previously convicted of a misdemeanor in 2004 for contributing to the delinquency of a minor committed for the purposes of sexual gratification, court records stated.

He received three years formal probation in that case, ordered to register as a sex offender and was forced to resign as an Imperial Police Department officer, where he had worked since 1993.