DA: Fort Bragg man convicted of `continuous sexual abuse of a child'

A Fort Bragg man was convicted in Mendocino County Superior Court recently of sexually abusing a child, the Mendocino County District Attorney reported.

According to the office of DA David Eyster, a jury last Friday found Robert S. Hrbac, 45, of Fort Bragg, “guilty of continuous sexual abuse of a child under the age of 14, (and of) preventing and/or dissuading a victim from reporting her victimization … by means of a conspiracy.”

Eyster's office also explains that: “the jury also found true sentencing enhancements charged by the District Attorney alleging that defendant Hrbac has suffered a prior conviction in January 2006 in the Mendocino County Superior Court for committing lewd and lascivious acts with a child under the age of 14, (and) an additional hearing was conducted to determine whether the prosecution had proven any aggravating sentencing factors in the course of the trial, (with) seven aggravating factors found true by the court.”

The DA'S office extended a “special note of appreciation to four of defendant Hrbac's prior victims who showed strength of character and courage by appearing and testifying before the jury, and in front of the man who abused each of them, as to their respective prior and separate sexual victimization by defendant Hrbac.”

Also according to the DA'S office, “on the morning that jury selection was to get underway on Feb. 13, 2024, defendant Hrbac's codefendant (and wife), Yani Atheia Beaty, age 41, of Fort Bragg … withdrew her not guilty pleas and pled no contest to preventing or dissuading a witness from reporting a crime to law enforcement, (and) pled no contest to being an accessory after the fact to sexual abuse of a child.”

Hrbac's sentencing has been scheduled for April 4, and “defendant's Beaty's probation referral has been trailing the outcome of her co-defendant's trial.

The prosecutor handling the child sexual assault cases against both defendant Hrbac and defendant Beaty is Assistant District Attorney Dale P. Trigg, (and) Mendocino County Superior Court Judge Keith Faulder presided over defendant Hrbac's two-week trial and defendant Beaty's last-second admissions of criminal culpability.”