Activist Charged With Sex Crimes

A longtime community activist and leader of the annual Lunar New Year festivities in Orange County was arraigned Thursday on charges of rape and molestation.

Huy Ngoc Nguyen, 34, of Midway City pleaded not guilty at his first court appearance in Westminster since his arrest Tuesday, three days after his wedding. He is being held at Orange County Jail on $1-million bail.

Nguyen is accused of one felony count of forcible rape on a woman in February or March, said Deputy Dist. Atty. Beth Costello. She said he also committed felony molestation on a girl under 14 on Jan. 1, 1996.

“These are women who knew him and admired him,” Costello said, adding that the girl went to police after the woman came forward.

Nguyen’s public defender could not be reached for comment.

His arrest sent shock waves through the Vietnamese American community, where he has been a volunteer and leader for more than a decade.

“I’m very surprised,” said Thuy Nguyen of Stanton, who is an advisor to the Union of Vietnamese Student Assns. in Southern California and has known Huy Nguyen since the early 1990s. “He’s always a giving, nice person. He was like a brother.”

As president of the association in 1993, Huy Nguyen helped put on the annual Tet Festival at Golden West College, which celebrates the Lunar New Year and attracts 100,000 people.

He was so dedicated to the effort, said Thuy Nguyen, that he donated time, money and services from his business, a printing shop. “There was a time when we needed wood to build a stage for performances,” he said, “but we didn’t have money, so he spent a whole day to find wood and build it.”

Even after his two-year term ended, Huy Nguyen continued to advise and devote time to the organization, which promotes Vietnamese culture, history and volunteerism. He also worked with a leprosy organization serving children in Vietnam.

Costello said Nguyen met the woman and girl through his activism and used his position to get close to them. She said there may be more victims.