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 Isidro Garcia, 41, was charged with kidnapping, rape and lewd acts
upon a child and a judge on Thursday ordered him held on bail of $1
million, in connection with crimes Orange County prosecutors say he
committed against the woman when she was a minor.
Now 25, the woman told detectives she endured a decade of physical
and sexual abuse by Isidro, was forced into marriage in 2007 and
later bore his child. She contacted authorities this week after
reaching out to her sister on Facebook, police said.
"We're talking about the kidnapping of a 15-year-old child who was
taken from her mother, taken from her home, taken from her
neighborhood and for the past 10 years she has been the victim of
ongoing emotional, physical and sexual abuse," said Orange County
District Attorney's Office spokeswoman Farrah Emami. "You can
imagine what that would do to a person."
Since Garcia's arrest, neighbors who lived near the couple in the
Southern California community of Bell Gardens told local media they
were shocked by the allegations and said the woman never appeared to
be in distress. She has not been publicly identified.
"I can't speak to any statements that are being made about her
disposition as a 25-year-old woman, but that's not what our case is
about. Our case is about crimes against a 15-year-old girl," Emami
said.
Garcia, who was a live-in boyfriend of the girl's mother when she
went missing, is accused of abducting the then 15-year-old from
suburban Santa Ana in 2004, where she they had lived at the time,
prosecutors said.
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Garcia's lawyer told reporters on Thursday that the teen went with
him willingly and was treated "like a queen," suggesting her
accusations were prompted by marital problems.
"If you listen to all what the neighbors say, if you listen to what
everybody who knew them says, she was free to go," Garcia's
attorney, Charles Frisco Jr, said in a telephone interview.
The woman's reported escape comes a year after three women famously
emerged from a home in suburban Cleveland where they were held for
years and abused by their captor, Ariel Castro.
Michelle Knight, who survived a decade in Castro's captivity,
rallied to defend the woman at the center of the Orange County case,
telling CNN she should not be doubted.
The woman herself spoke to Los Angeles television station KABC on
Wednesday, and mentioned that neighbors thought Garcia was good to
her.
"He worked hard for me and my daughter and he bought everything I
want," she told KABC. "But I need love of my family, not things."
(Editing by Cynthia Johnston and G Crosse)
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