Son of Hispanic Oakland City Council President sentenced for four rapes

[Brewski]

Oakland council president's son arrested

OAKLAND, Calif. Police say the son of Oakland City Council President Ignacio De La Fuente has surrendered to police and is being held on suspicion of rape and kidnapping.

Police say thirty-one-year-old Ignacio Rafael De La Fuente Junior is suspected in the mid-April assault on a 15-year-old girl.

He surrendered shortly after midnight today.

The elder Fuente said he had no knowledge of the pending charges. He says he's shocked at the arrest.

De La Fuente Senior has been on the Oakland City Council since 1992. He recently announced plans to run for Oakland mayor.

[Whitebear]

Ignacio De La Fuente - 'homepage"
Ignacio De La Fuente was born on January 1, 1949 in Mexico City.
He immigrated to California at the age of 21 and subsequently became an American citizen.

INSTITUTO LABORAL de la RAZA honored Ignacio de la Fuente.

His district in East Oakland is a 'Little Mexico' - taco wagons, shop signs in Spanish...

A unique economic feature, the Fruitvale District is the informal hiring spot for Oakland's Day Laborers.

"The Antonio Peralta family once owned all the land that now makes up Oakland, San Leandro, Alameda, Piedmont, Berkeley, Albany and Emeryville."

Oakland alone boasts 87,467 Hispanic residents, who make up 21.9 percent of the city's populati
on.

In Fruitvale, illegal aliens and residents make up a large percent of the population. Many of the street vendors pushing colorful tamales carts, the bakery goers, and the notary public workers at the corner of Fruitvale and International Ave. said they couldn't legally vote today when they were questioned about the election.



Google image search for "Ignacio De La Fuente"

[img]http://images.google.com/images?q=tbn:Vrox5EenpZAJ:dbacon.igc.org/PJust/PJustBig/affact17.jpg' border='0' alt='user
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[JesseGibson]

OAKLAND, Calif. - The son of Oakland City Council President Ignacio De La Fuente pleaded not guilty on Tuesday to rape charges.

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews...ia/12516978.htm
(registration required - ed.)

[Whitebear]

Google news search for "Ignacio De La Fuente"

De La Fuente Jr. pleads not guilty to rape - San Francisco Chronicle

Not Guilty Plea For Oakland Councilmember's Son - CBS 5

[svejk]

De La Fuente Jr. charged with more sexual assaults

The son of Oakland City Council President Ignacio De La Fuente, who has already pleaded not guilty to two rape charges, was charged this morning with three additional felony charges stemming from the alleged sexual assaults of two more women in 2003.

Ignacio Rafael De La Fuente Jr., 32, of Redwood City, now faces five felony charges filed in connection with the alleged sexual assaults or rapes of four young women between 2003 and 2005.

De La Fuente Jr. pleaded not guilty to three new charges filed today: assault with intent


to commit rape, forcible sexual penetration and forcible oral copulation. He nodded at his parents this morning as he entered an Oakland courtroom to answer to the charges.

The new charges involved the alleged attacks on
two separate victims -- identified in the criminal complaint only as "Jane Doe 3" and "Jane Doe 4" -- on Oct. 21, 2003.

[Whitebear]

De La Fuente Jr. Gets 14 Years In Sex Assault Case


Ignacio Rafael De La Fuente Jr

OAKLAND -- The son of Oakland City Council President Ignacio De La Fuente was sentenced Friday to 14 years in state prison for sexually assaulting four women ranging in age from 15 to 24 in an 18-month period between October 2003 and April 2005.

Ignacio Rafael De La Fuente Jr., 34, chose not to speak at Friday's hearing, which was packed with many of his family members, including his parents, two other Oakland City Council members, Pat Kernighan and Henry Chang, and a group called Bay Area Women Against Rape, which supports the victims in the case. None of the four victims spoke and Alameda County Superior Court Judge Allan Hymer refused to let the mother of the victim who was 15 when she was sexually assaulted speak.

De La Fuente had faced multiple life sentences if he'd been convicted of all five counts against him, which were two counts of rape and one count each of assault with intent to commit rape, digital penetration by force and forced oral copulation. But May 3, one week into a jury trial, prosecutor Brian Owens agreed to drop three kidnapping enhancement clauses in exchange for De La Fuente Jr.'s guilty plea to four instances of sexual assault.

Three of the victims had already testified against him and the fourth was scheduled to testify later that day. The plea bargain called for a 14-year state prison sentence, so there weren't any surprises at today's hearing. De La Fuente Jr.'s attorney, Robert Beles, said he will be eligible for parole in less than 10 years because he's been in custody since April 29, 2005. All four sexual assault victims testified at De La Fuente Jr.'s preliminary hearing last June and identified him as their attacker.

DNA evidence also tied De La Fuente Jr. to two of the victims. Marcia Blackstock of Bay Area Women Against Rape said "justice isn't served" because she thinks De La Fuente Jr. deserved a much longer sentence "because of all the havoc he caused."

Blackstock said, "It helps to have people in power in your family." Judges often let family members of crime victims speak at the sentencings of defendants and Blackstock said it was "outrageous" for Hymer not to allow the mother of the 15-year-old victim to speak. "When your child is raped you go through the same experience," Blackstock said. De La Fuente Sr. and his wife, Elvia, declined to speak to reporters after today's hearing.

Although De La Fuente Sr. was endorsed by the powerful Oakland Police Officers Association in his unsuccessful campaign against Ron Dellums and other candidates in the 2006 election, the site alleges he "was openly disliked by more than a handful of Oakland's high-ranking police officers who felt he had 'too much power for a Mexican.'" After the Web site appeared, Alameda County District Attorney Tom Orloff said today that he has no doubt that De La Fuente Jr. is guilty of sexually assaulting the four women. Orloff said, "I'm very satisfied that everything was done appropriately" in the case.