Police back woman’s harrowing account of being held captive for decade

The attorney for a man accused of kidnapping a girl and holding her captive for 10 years ago strongly denied his client did any wrong and treated the alleged victim “like a queen.”

Isidro Garcia’s attorney, Charles Frisco said the woman, now 25, was never held against her will.

“Practically everybody connected to the family...finds these allegations unbelievable,” Frisco said. “She had her own car, her own job. It’s mind-boggling why she would wait this long...why is she coming forward now?”

Garcia was charged with one felony count of forcible rape, three felony counts of lewd acts on a minor, and one felony count of kidnapping to commit a sexual offense, according to a news release from the Orange County district attorney’s office.

If convicted, he faces up to 19 years in prison. He was held on $1 million bail.

Police said the woman, who was not identified, went through a brutal ordeal at the hands of the man, who was her mother’s boyfriend when he allegedly abducted her. But some people who knew the pair recently said they appeared to be a loving couple and that the woman did not appear to be under any duress.

“I just don’t understand how he could have her like that all these years,” Javier Campos, 28, who lived near their Bell Gardens apartment and said he knew them. “The police station is right around the corner.”

Santa Ana police Cpl. Anthony Bertagna said those who knew the pair in Bell Gardens were not seeing the whole picture, especially the years when she was a minor.

“People are giving the impression that she was an adult,” he said. “She was a minor in a foreign country. That’s a very important part of this.”

During a brief interview with KABC-TV, the woman said she was too scared to seek help during the last 10 years.

“I was 15. I couldn’t do anything,” she said. “I was very afraid about everything, because I was alone. I [thought] I was alone, but I never was. My family was with me.”

“She had her own car, her own job,” he said. “It’s mind-boggling why she would wait this long...why is she coming forward now?”

Though Garcia has not yet had a chance to tell his side of the story, “what he has to say is completely different from how the media is portraying him,” Frisco said. “When we get that chance, the truth will be exposed.”

Police said the woman, who was not identified, went through a brutal ordeal at the hands of the man, who was her mother’s boyfriend when he allegedly abducted her. But some people who knew the pair recently said they appeared to be a loving couple and that the woman did not appear to be under any duress.

“I just don’t understand how he could have her like that all these years,” Javier Campos, 28, who lived near their Bell Gardens apartment and said he knew them. “The police station is right around the corner.”

Santa Ana police Cpl. Anthony Bertagna said those who knew the pair in Bell Gardens were not seeing the whole picture, especially the years when she was a minor.

“People are giving the impression that she was an adult,” he said. “She was a minor in a foreign country. That’s a very important part of this.”

During a brief interview with KABC-TV, the woman said she was too scared to seek help during the last 10 years.

“I was 15. I couldn’t do anything,” she said. “I was very afraid about everything, because I was alone. I [thought] I was alone, but I never was. My family was with me.”

Police say Isidro Garcia, 42, drugged and kidnapped the girl, beat her when she tried to escape and forced her to marry him.

For years, authorities allege, he used violence and threats to keep her under his control, forcing her to work beside him and telling her she would be deported if she left.

Two years ago she had his child, according to police.

Police say the woman recently found her sister on Facebook and gained the courage to come forward.

Garcia and the woman, who has not been identified, had most recently been living in Bell Gardens. He was arrested Tuesday on suspicion of kidnapping for rape, lewd acts with a minor and false imprisonment.

The case went largely unnoticed when it first happened. At the time, police say, the mother suspected Garcia of sexually abusing her daughter but had no evidence.

The girl arrived in Santa Ana from Mexico in March 2004 to reunite with her mother, who was living with Garcia in an apartment community that houses hundreds of immigrant and working-class families.

“He tells her, ‘You can’t go home. You’re here illegally and your mom called the police,’ ” Bertagna said, describing what the woman says Garcia told her.

Police say Garcia physically abused the mother and began sexually abusing the daughter soon after her arrival.

The night of the kidnapping in August 2004, Garcia beat the mother and when the girl fled to a park, he followed her, Bertagna said.

“She said, ‘I just want to go home, I have a headache,’” Bertagna said. “He tells her, ‘You can’t go home. You’re here illegally and your mom called the police.’”

Garcia drugged the girl and when she awoke she was in a garage in Compton, Bertagna said.

She tried to escape but each time Garcia caught up to her, beat her and told her that her mother no longer loved her, he said.

Eventually, Bertagna said, “she becomes accustomed to this.”

They lived in several Southern California cities, including Stanton and Long Beach. Garcia also obtained false papers from Mexico changing the girl’s birth date so they could be married, Bertagna said. He forced her to work a night shift as a janitor alongside him to keep an eye on her, he said.

One woman who knew the missing girl’s mother said the mother may have initially believed her daughter went with Garcia willingly.

Araceli Ochoa, a leasing agent at the Santa Ana apartment complex, said the mother came to her office deeply worried after the disappearance.

“She couldn’t understand how her daughter could leave,” Ochoa said in Spanish.

Silvia Suarez, 54, a former neighbor, recalled speaking with the mother shortly before the kidnapping. She suspected Garcia was having a sexual relationship with her daughter and the girl was making plans to leave with him.

“I spoke to her mom about God,” Suarez said in Spanish. “She said she was having problems with her partner. She believed he was romancing her daughter.”

Ricardo Ledesma, 43, who has lived in the apartment building for six years, said the pair appeared to be a model family.

“It’s an injustice,” Ledesma told The Times in Spanish. “I never saw him hit her or any signs of abuse.”

On May 5, Garcia threw her a surprise birthday party for the woman in the back of the building, complete with a clown, music and carne asada. Garcia worked two jobs, at a nearby Chinese restaurant and cleaning buildings.

“He was a hard-working man, he worked two jobs,” Ledesma said. “He would do anything for her and their daughter.”

Their downstairs neighbor, Maria Perez, knew the couple for five years. She said Garcia and the woman would go on trips to Fresno, Universal Studios and Disneyland with their young daughter.

“I don’t believe it, it doesn’t make sense,” Perez said. “They were a very tight couple, she wouldn’t do anything without his approval and vice versa.”