Longtime lawman faces prison after he’s found guilty of molesting relative

Longtime Fresno law enforcement officer Rex Garcia was found guilty Wednesday of repeatedly molesting a relative, starting when she was 7 years old.

The verdict came quick – a jury of eight men and four women deliberated for just one hour.

Garcia, 73, appeared stunned when the verdict was announced in Fresno County Superior Court. The father of the victim cried.

Garcia had been free on $40,000 bail. Once the verdict was announced, Judge Jonathan Conklin ordered Garcia to be handcuffed and confined in jail until his sentencing on Jan. 16.

Prosecutor Amythest “Amy” Freeman said Garcia faces up to 16 years in prison. He also has to register as a sex offender for life.

Conklin, however, also ordered a doctor to evaluate Garcia’s mental health. Fresno defense lawyer Antonio Alvarez said the evaluation will determine whether Garcia is suitable for probation.

But Alvarez conceded in court that Garcia will likely go to prison unless Conklin finds unusual circumstances. Alvarez asked Conklin if Garcia could be free to get his personal issues in order before he is sentenced. But the judge denied his request.

Garcia spent 31 years in law enforcement, including 10 years as a Fresno police officer and nearly 19 years as a Fresno County sheriff's deputy and bailiff. He retired from the sheriff's office in 2013.

He was charged with a single felony charge of continuous sexual abuse of a child under 14 years old, from August 2009 to August 2015.

During the trial, Alvarez told jurors that Garcia was innocent because it would be out of character for him to molest a child. Alvarez also said the girl has a history of lying. Garcia, who testified in the trial, also denied molesting the girl.

But Freeman told the jury the case was about Garcia betraying his family.

Garcia lived his wife and other relatives in a three-bedroom home in Fresno. Because the family was close, Freeman said, the victim affectionately called him “Papa.”

His troubles began when the girl’s father told the Fresno Police Department on Aug. 31, 2015, that his daughter told him that Garcia had molested her repeatedly.

According to Freeman, the girl said in late August 2015 that she felt a chill, woke up and found her blankets off her and her pajama pants down. She said she Garcia was standing over her in the middle of the night and rubbing her vagina.

“Hi, baby”" Garcia said, according to Freeman.

The next day the girl told her father.

The father, however, was a convicted thief who spent time in prison. He didn’t initially report the crime to police because he feared Garcia had friends in law enforcement who would not believe him, Freeman told the jury. So he set up a secret camera in his daughter’s’ room.

Freeman said video evidence shows Garcia going into the girl’s room in the middle of the night over the next few days. In one of the videos, he is seen touching her under her covers, the prosecutor said.

Once police were contacted, the girl said Garcia had been molesting her since she was 7 years old, Freeman said.

But Alvarez told the jury that Garcia could not have molested her in her preteen years because she was sleeping in her great-grandmother’s bedroom, sometimes with her and sometimes on a trundle bed.

According to Alvarez, Garcia and his wife often stayed up late at night watching television or checking on the girl because they were protective of her.

This story was originally published December 13, 2017 at 5:21 PM with the headline "Longtime lawman faces prison after he’s found guilty of molesting relative."