73-Year-Old Sentenced for Harassing Women in Grantville Shopping Center Parking Lot

A 73-calendar year-previous gentleman who harassed multiple girls at a Grantville purchasing heart in excess of the course of a number of many years was sentenced to a single yr of probation and requested to go through therapy, the San Diego Metropolis Attorney’s Place of work introduced Wednesday.

On at least 6 individual instances concerning 2018 and 2020, Orlando Joseph Chavez approached girls in the parking whole lot of a strip mall on Friars Street, then crawled beneath the women’s automobiles beneath the guise of examining an apparent fluid leak, prosecutors explained.

As soon as beneath the victims’ cars, he would not come out, proficiently preventing the gals from becoming equipped to leave, prosecutors explained.

In accordance to the Town Attorney’s Office environment, a single of the incidents transpired in the presence of an off-responsibility San Diego law enforcement officer. Following the officer purchased him to occur out from beneath the car or truck, Chavez advised him he wasn’t accomplishing everything wrong, obtained into his truck and drove absent, according to prosecutors.

On an additional situation, the Town Attorney’s Business alleges he grabbed a girl by the arm. When the woman’s supervisor arrived around to aid, Chavez explained to them, “You girls are so really and ought to appear with me,” court docket paperwork point out.

A single girl who worked at the browsing middle was approached on three separate occasions, with Chavez following the woman into her office and asking for her when she disregarded him the 3rd time. He was also investigated for allegedly stalking another girl for virtually two years and slashing the tires on her husband’s motor vehicle.

Chavez later pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor bogus imprisonment count. Along with probation, he was purchased to enroll in a stalking therapy plan and to continue to be absent from the searching center’s parking great deal.

“Stalking habits like this can lead to tragic results. We commend the victims for reporting these incidents of harassment,” Metropolis Attorney Mara W. Elliott stated. “We recognize that they dependable us to choose their problems seriously and to maintain this serial offender accountable for his weird and threatening conduct.”

Town Information Provider contributed to this posting.