Reported groping victim unhappy with police’s action

Deepa Bharath

A 19-year-old Costa Mesa woman, who told police she was groped by a

teenager while shopping at a convenience store, said she is unhappy

with the police dropping charges against another teen who was

arrested in connection with the incident.

Costa Mesa police dropped the case against a 16-year-old boy who

was one among a group of four youths involved in the alleged groping

incident, which happened May 3 in a 7-Eleven near Victoria Street and

Placentia Avenue and was captured in the store’s surveillance camera,

officials said.

Police have dropped the charges against the teen who did not touch

the woman, but not against the teen accused of groping her, said

Costa Mesa Police Lt. John FitzPatrick.

“We’ve completed our investigation of the case,” he said. “It’s

now up to the district attorney to file the charges.”

Police at the time believed that the teen seen groping the woman

on tape could be connected with the assaults on Victoria Street since

December. But officials ruled out the teen’s connection with those

other incidents after police said they questioned the alleged groper

who said he was pushed on to the woman and it was an accident. The

woman also agreed that it could have been a push as opposed to a

grope, police said.

But the woman said Friday “it was no accident.”

“He touched my behind,” she said. “I have no doubt or confusion

about it. How could I be confused about someone doing that to me?”

The Daily Pilot does not name victims of sexual assault crimes,

and only in special circumstances does the paper publish the names of

juveniles who are accused of committing crimes.

The woman said the teens were in the store but she said she

believed that they were not buying anything.

“As I was paying, this guy pushes me from behind and touches me on

my butt,” she said. “Then he does this fake fall and laughs.”

All the teens laughed at her in a derogatory manner, but never

spoke to her, she said.

“If it was an accident, then why didn’t he apologize?” she asked.

“Why didn’t he say, ‘I’m sorry. It was a mistake’?”

The woman said she felt “humiliated” by the incident.

“It was like I was a game to them,” she said.

But FitzPatrick said the woman did give “conflicting statements.”

“She initially called us to report the groping,” he said. “But

later after the alleged groper said it was an accident, our

detectives asked her, ‘Was it a grope or a push?’ And she told them

‘It could’ve been a push.’”

The woman said she did not tell police “it was just a push,” she

said.

“I don’t know if it was a miscommunication between me and the

detective,” she said.

FitzPatrick said police are hard at work trying to arrest those

who assaulted the women on Victoria Street. So far, 10 women have

reported that they have been grabbed from behind and touched

inappropriately while walking on Victoria Street.

“This is not just about her as the victim,” he said. “Ten other

women have been sexually battered in the neighborhood and we’re

trying to find those guys.”

The woman said she believes her case warrants as much importance

as the other assaults.

“Maybe my case is not related to all those assaults,” she said.

“But that doesn’t make it right. It doesn’t give him any right to do

what he did.”

She said she is embarrassed by the incident. She signed a release

for the tape to be broadcast, but one of the television channels

failed to mosaic her face during its broadcast, she said.

“I work at an elementary school and a 9-year-old boy walked up to

me and asked me if I was raped,” she said. “I’ve lived in Costa Mesa.

I work in this area. Everyone knows one another and it’s been

humiliating for me.”

* DEEPA BHARATH covers public safety and courts. She may be

reached at (949) 574-4226 or by e-mail at deepa.bharath@ latimes.com.