Orange County authorities are trying to identify the victims of a 57-year-old man accused of grooming women to care for young children who were later sexually assaulted in Southern California hotels.
Jason Valentine Esparza was arrested on April 7 after an eight-month investigation that culminated in an undercover operation. Sexual assaults involving children as young as 4 years old allegedly occurred over several decades, according to the Orange County District Attorney’s Office.
The Huntington Beach Police Department investigation began with a tip from the Internet Crimes Against Children program in September 2022. Over the next eight months, HBPD detectives posing as a woman caring for a boy in 4-year-old contacted the suspect.
They would have the choice between remaining in prison or undergoing treatment.
“During these communications, Esparza is accused of expressing a desire to perform very specific sexual acts with the child,” prosecutors said in a statement.
Esparza was arrested April 7 after entering a Huntington Beach hotel room where he was told the boy was being held.
Indictments are slated for next week for three attempted oral copulation or sexual penetration of a child 10 or younger and two attempted forcible obscene acts on a minor child. He is being held on $1 million bail.
The suspect is originally from Ohio but has ties to Huntington Beach, Long Beach and Fullerton, prosecutors said.
It was not immediately clear if he had an attorney.
Anyone with additional information about the case has been asked to call the Huntington Beach Police Department at 714-375-5066.
Anonymous information can be submitted to OC Crime Stoppers by calling 855-847-6227.
This story first appeared on Telemundo 52’s sister station NBCLA. Click here to read this story in Spanish