Prosecutors knew they had a good case against a 42-year old man who stood accused of annoying or molesting an 11-year old Long Beach girl.
Guillermo Aldana was apparently intoxicated when he approached an 11-year old girl in August, grabbed her face and attempted to kiss her. A quick-thinking 13-year old friend made up an excuse and the girls fled and called the police.
Now it was up to Chad Salzman, a Long Beach Deputy City Prosecutor, to convince a jury that Aldana should be put behind bars. Several days into the trial, Salzman knew he needed testimony from the 13-year old friend, who was reluctant to talk about what happened or face Aldana again.
There was another problem: the girl and her family live near San Diego. After reassuring her that she would have to look at the defendant only to identify him, and that her testimony would be a great service, Salzman convinced the girl and her family to make the trip up to Long Beach for their day in court.
“She didn’t want to talk about it at all,” says Tim, the girl’s father. The family’s last name is not being disclosed in the interest of safety.
“I’m really impressed with [Salzman],” says Tim. “Because before the case, he took time to sit with us and my daughter to explain everything to us.”
When her time on the stand finally came, the young girl bravely identified the suspect and told her side of the story. Everything was going to plan when Judge Tomson T. Ong broke session for the day and announced that the court would reconvene the next day. Salzman had not finished questioning his key witness, and she also had not been cross-examined yet. They would need the 13-year old to be back in court the next day. This was a major problem.
“We’re kind of homeless right now,” Tim explains. “We knew it was possible to go another day but we weren’t really prepared for that.”
Tim grew up in Long Beach and settled with his wife and two children in Corona. When he lost his job as a forklift operator, his daughter stayed with friends in Long Beach while the rest of the family bounced from motel to motel. When that option ran out and Tim still couldn’t find work, the family was preparing for life in their car when Tim’s sister agreed to take everyone into her home in San Marcos, near San Diego.
The girl stayed with family friends in Long Beach and it was around this time that the crime occurred. The family became embroiled in bringing their daughter to court to testify. Tim finally received a call for a temporary job but it fell on the day that she needed to be in court. He faced a difficult decision but took his family to Long Beach on that day. As the judge broke the session, however, he had another difficult decision with nowhere for his family to stay the night.
That’s when Salzman and his boss, Long Beach City Prosecutor Doug Haubert, took matters into their own hands. Haubert called Melissa Selmanson, the meetings and events manager at the AVIA, a four-star hotel and one of the most upscale in downtown Long Beach. Haubert asked if there was anything that the AVIA could do to help the family, who were needed to put a sex offender behind bars.
“Hearing from Doug about something that was so personal, there was no question that we were going to do whatever we could to get involved,” Selmanson says. “We’re a supporter not only of him but of the city of Long Beach.”
Selmanson found a vacancy at the hotel and put Tim and his family into one of their Classic Double Queen rooms for the night. She also produced vouchers for dinner at the hotel restaurant. Tim called the experience “once in a lifetime” for his children, and encouraged them to try something new on the upscale hotel menu. To a family falling on hard times and going through an emotional trial, the generosity meant more than a warm place to stay.
“We were really expecting Motel 6, and it was just amazing what they were willing to offer us for our stay there,” says Tim. “It would have been an extreme hardship for us to come all the way back down here [to San Marcos], and all the way up to Long Beach and other than that we would’ve spent the night in the car that night.”
The next day, her testimony was delivered and Aldana was found guilty just a few days afterwards. Last week, Judge Ong sentenced him to one year in jail. Aldana will also have to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life. When Salzman telephoned to deliver the news, Tim’s daughter screamed with joy and leapt into the air.
“It wasn’t until the judge broke the session for the day that she broke down and cried, and we are so proud of her,” says Tim. “Our hearts go out to these guys. They were fantastic to us and helped in every way they could.”
Both Salzman and Haubert say that the case depended on that testimony, and spoke very highly of the efforts made by Selmanson and the AVIA.
“It absolutely broke my heart, and what we were able to do doesn’t even compare to what this family may have been through,” Selmanson says. “It was a blessing not only to just provide them a place to stay but something that they’re also going to remember.”