Three Teens Sentenced in Assault on Unconscious Girl

Three San Marcos teen-agers have been sentenced to eight months at a juvenile camp for sexually assaulting an unconscious 14-year-old girl.

The boys, ages 14, 15 and 16, were sentenced Tuesday to the juvenile facility in Campo, said Deputy Dist. Atty. Cynthia Windsor, the prosecutor in the case. They also must perform 200 hours of community service and pay the girl’s medical costs.

Before they were sentenced, Juvenile Court Judge Hideo Chino noted that the boys had no criminal backgrounds and that psychological evaluations showed them to have no serious mental dysfunctions, Windsor said.

“In light of the the boys’ background and their psychological evaluation, the judge sentenced them to an eight-month program at the juvenile facility,” she said. “The sentence sent the word out that this type of behavior is not approved. The sentence was reasonable, because the boys could have gone to the California Youth Authority until they turned 25.

“I agreed, and the judge agreed, with a probation officer’s recommendation that confinement at CYA would not do the boys any good, and would turn them into criminals. That is not what we want to do,” Windsor said.

The boys have served 5 1/2 months in Juvenile Hall, but the judge refused to include that time in his sentencing, Windsor said. With good behavior, the boys could be released in six months, she said.

The teen-agers were convicted last month in Juvenile Court of harming the girl by using foreign objects to penetrate her rectum and vagina while she was unconscious. As many as 15 other boys witnessed the attack. The victim was not raped.

The incident occurred during a party at a home in San Marcos last Labor Day while the parents of the teen-ager hosting the party were away. The victim testified that she was drinking vodka and was led by one of the defendants to a back bedroom, where she passed out.

Burton Shamsky, the attorney representing the 14-year-old boy, said: “The sentence was really excessive. He’s a good kid and well-liked. The kids did something wrong, perhaps, but they shouldn’t be confined. It would be better if the (14-year-old) lived at home. He’s from a good family. They’re holding him at the same standards they would an adult, and punishing him as an adult.”

Although the incident was tragic, Shamsky said, the boy’s problem could be worked out better at his own home with the help of a psychologist than in a detention facility where he will be exposed to “bad influences.”

Attorneys for the other two boys could not be reached.

After the teen-agers are released on probation, they will perform 200 hours of community service, probably with a church, Windsor said, adding that they will be prohibited from contacting one another or the victim.

A fourth defendant, Pasqual Rojero, 20, has been arraigned in Vista Superior Court on the same charges and is awaiting trial. Prosecutors allege that Rojero was the leader in the assault.