P. v. Gonzales CA5
Appellant/petitioner Gerardo Gonzales pleaded no contest in 1987 in the Superior Court of Kern County, pursuant to a plea agreement, to one count of violating Penal Code section 288, subdivision (a), commission of a lewd and lascivious act upon a child. The victim was identified as five-year-old Brooke H., who had apparently been a friend of his daughter. Appellant was sentenced to three years and ordered to register as a sex offender.
As acknowledged by respondent, appellant had originally been arrested and criminally charged as part of “a notorious Kern County investigation into numerous allegations of child molestations against numerous suspects in the 1980s.” Also as acknowledged by respondent, the California State Attorney General’s Office conducted an investigation into how law enforcement agencies handled those cases, and released a report in 1986 (before appellant’s plea in this case) that revealed “there was in fact a well-publicized and flawed investigation inv
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