Sex crime offenders burden their victims with physical,
emotional and psychological wounds. The destructive effects of a
sexual crime are difficult to recover from and can last for
generations.
Sex crime offenders burden their victims with physical, emotional and psychological wounds. The destructive effects of a sexual crime are difficult to recover from and can last for generations.
That’s why we’re so impressed by the work of the Gilroy Police Department, and especially detectives Wes Stanford and Mike Beebe, in arresting so many sex crime suspects in recent months. Stanford and Beebe, who worked the sex crimes beat this winter, made arrests in seven major cases of sexual abuse between Jan. 27 and April 2. Much of that work is due to the GPD’s generous approval of 64 hours of overtime in a one-month period to help solve these heinous crimes.
Of Stanford and Beebe’s six arrests, four suspects have entered guilty or no contest pleas. That’s great news and a reflection of Stanford and Beebe’s scrupulous work and a hallmark of the professionalism of the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office, especially Deputy District Attorney Stacy Rubino.
In the most recent case to make it to the courts, Gilroyan Kevin Bonilla, 48, plead no contest to charges that he had molested a local girl for five years, beginning when she was just 10 years old. Bonilla agreed to a 32-year prison sentence, and will serve at least 27 years of that term.
Another Gilroy man, James Caudill, 43, entered a no contest plea last month to charges that he molested a girl for five years, starting when she was just 6 years old. Caudill faces a 43-year prison sentence.
Rubino prosecuted both men.
We can’t give sex crime victims their childhoods back or restore their trust. We can’t undo their fear or erase their pain.
The best we can do is bring their perpetrators to justice as swiftly as possible and do everything we can to make sure they never victimize anyone again. It’s good to know that the Gilroy Police Department and the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office are working diligently and effectively toward that goal.
It’s an effort that will pay untold dividends for generations to come.
