Jury convicts former Millbrae resident of child sex abuse

The San Mateo County Sheriff’s Office says it is looking for other possible victims

REDWOOD CITY >> A 62-yearold Utah man with Bay Area ties has been convicted of molesting a young female relative, and authorities are continuing to search for other victims.

On Monday, a San Mateo County Superior Court jury found Latu Lavaki, formerly of Millbrae, guilty on one count of felony lewd act with a child and one count of felony sexual penetration. The jury deadlocked on a third count of felony oral copulation on a child.

Lavaki faces up to eight years in prison when he returns to court for sentencing on Dec. 7.

The victim was 7 years old when Lavaki molested her at his Peninsula home during her 2006-07 winter break. According to Lavaki prosecutors, she only disclosed what had happened after learning years later that he had allegedly molested her mother and aunts in the mid-’80s.

Lavaki was extradited from Utah, where he had moved, to face charges in the more recent case.

The statute of limitations had expired for the others, according to prosecutors. On Tuesday, the San Mateo County Sheriff’s Office announced it was looking for other victims.

“The molestation started in the mid-’80s and the suspect victimized many girls over the past few decades,” the sheriff’s office said in a news release. “Unfortunately, with the statute of limitations for some of these crimes, we were unable to prosecute him on all the cases we know about. But we believe there are potentially more victims out there.”

Anyone with information can contact Detective Sgt. Joseph Cang at 650-363-4008 or jcang@ smcgov.org.

Lavaki, who had been out of custody on $200,000 bail bond, has been remanded into custody.