Man convicted of sexually abusing children in SLO County must remain in state hospital, judge rules

A man convicted of sexually abusing children in San Luis Obispo County will remain in the care of a state hospital, a San Luis Obispo Superior Court judge ruled.

After a four-day hearing, Superior Court Judge Timothy S. Covello found there was sufficient evidence to grant the San Luis Obispo County District Attorney’s request for civil commitment of 62-year-old Alfredo Arcilio Mendez as a sexually violent offender, the agency said in a news release Wednesday.

“This sentence will ensure that Mr. Mendez is held in a hospital where he will not pose a threat to our community,” San Luis Obispo County District Attorney Dan Dow said in the release. “We are committed to doing everything in our power to protect the people of San Luis Obispo County from dangerous sex offenders like Mr. Mendez.”

Mendez had previously been convicted of five sex crimes in separate trials in two California counties, prosecutors said. Among other things, he was accused of lewd acts and oral sex with a six-year-old child in San Diego County in 1986.

He was also convicted of sexually assaulting children ages 6, 8 and 10 in San Luis Obispo County in 1999, the press release said.

According to the press release, Mendez abused three seven-year-old girls while working at a daycare center and was arrested in Long Beach County in 1985 for the rape of a child under the age of 16.

The court also heard evidence that Mendez sexually abused a three-year-old boy in around 1999 or 2000, the press release said.

Two of the nine survivors of Mendez’s crimes testified during the trial, prosecutors said, and four psychologists who examined Mendez said he had been diagnosed with a pedophile mental disorder, the press release said.

“Two of the psychologists who examined him concluded that because of his mental disorder, he poses a significant and reasonable danger to the safety of others and that he is likely to engage in predatory, sexually violent criminal conduct if released into the community,” the prosecutor’s office said in a press release.

According to the press release, under the Sexually Violent Sex Offender Act, prosecutors in California can seek to continue incarcerating individuals beyond their parole period if they have been sentenced to prison for sexually violent offenses, have been diagnosed with a mental disorder, and pose a current danger to others.

“Individuals admitted under the SVP Act are generally placed in a closed hospital,” the public prosecutor’s office said in a press release.

After announcing his findings, Covello signed an order committing Mendez to Coalinga State Hospital, the press release said.

His progress there would be reviewed every two years by the California Department of State Hospitals, the press release said.

This case was prosecuted by Assistant District Attorney Kimberly R. Dittrich, assigned to the District Attorney’s Sexual Assault Unit. The case was investigated by the Grover Beach Police Department and the District Attorney’s Bureau of Investigation.