Trial date reset for Ukrainian national charged with child sex crimes
A Solano County Superior Court judge reshuffled pretrial proceedings and a jury trial date for 59-yearold Ukrainian national accused in 2019 of child sex abuse and possessing child pornography.
Alexander Vitaly Bantov of San Francisco was scheduled to appear March 10 for a jury trial in Department 9, but Judge Carlos Gutierrez ordered him instead to return for a trial readiness conference at 8:30 a.m. July 9; for a trial management conference at 8:30 a.m. July 16; and at 9 a.m. July 21 for a jury trial in the Justice Center in Fairfield.
After Bantov was held to answer and waived his right to a preliminary hearing in December 2019, Gutierrez ruled there was enough evidence to schedule pretrial proceedings against Bantov, a permanent U.S. resident who formerly lived in Canada.
Bantov, who remains in Solano County Jail custody, is charged with two counts of sex acts with a child 10 years old or younger; seven counts of lewd and lascivious acts on a child; and one count of possessing pornographic images of a child.
He has pleaded not guilty to the charges. If found guilty of all of them, Bantov could possibly spend the rest of his life in prison.
Bantov’s last attorney of record is Patrick E. Clancy, and Deputy District Attorney Shelly Moore has led the prosecution, according to court records.
During a proceeding in 2019, Moore challenged the defendant’s claim he could not afford a private attorney because, she said, Bantov owned a home in San Francisco likely worth more than $1 million.
During that same earlier proceeding, Bantov’s attorney at the time, John D. Forsyth of San Francisco, argued for release of his client from jail, with bail, citing his client’s high blood pressure; lack of a prior criminal record; ownership of the San Francisco home; and his responsibility for the caring of his elderly father in San Francisco.
Additionally, Forsyth said Bantov has had no additional contact with the victims since his mid-September 2019 arrest in San Francisco by Vallejo police officers and possessed a “green card,” a permit allowing a foreign national to live and work permanently in the United States.
At a 2019 jail arraignment, Moore told Commissioner Bryan J. Kim that police investigators advised a San Francisco neighbor of Bantov’s said the defendant had been trying to “sell his home for cash” and, therefore, may be a flight risk.
Kim denied Forsyth’s request for bail.
The mid-September arrest was not the first time Bantov was placed into custody in the case.
Court records indicate he was first arrested on Aug. 31 after Vallejo police received a report at about 12:09 p.m. of a man fondling a minor inside the IHOP restaurant, at 114 Plaza Drive, in Vallejo.
Officers arrested Bantov, who, at the time, was in the company of two minors he was looking after. One of the minors was the same one that Bantov allegedly was seen fondling.
An additional patron of the restaurant also reported seeing Bantov inappropriately touching the minor, police said.
He was arrested and booked into Solano County Jail on a count of lewd and lascivious acts with a child under 14. However, he apparently was released.
On Sept. 12, however, Vallejo detectives were able to successfully download and review the contents of Bantov’s cell phone, according to a report by the Vallejo Times-Herald.
Investigators found several images of child pornography. One of these photographs depicted Bantov involved in a lascivious act with one of the minors he was with at the IHOP, police said.
He was rearrested the same day at his San Francisco home on suspicion of child molestation and possession of child pornography.
Detectives have searched several electronic devices seized from Bantov’s residence. Additional images of child pornography have been found on those devices, police said.