Orange County is in the midst of
“an economic tsunami,” said Meghan Taylor, the Mid-Hudson Regional
Economic Development director./
WHITE PLAINS – A Mamaroneck man pled guilty to a charge of sexually abusing a girl back in November 1998 when she was five years old.
Luis Ortiz, 50, had been extradited from Guatemala in May of this year and returned to Mamaroneck Village Court on a bench warrant issued in 1998 when he failed to appear on two felony complaints.
On November 9, 1998, the victim told her mother that Ortiz had sexually abused her while she was in Ortiz’s home the previous weekend. The child’s mother reported it to police the same day and Ortiz was arrested two days later. He was charged with sexual abuse and admitted sexually abusing the girl.
Bail was set at the time at $25,000 cash, but was reduced to $5,000.
On December 1, 1998 during a forensic interview of the child, she disclosed additional information which indicated Ortiz had engaged in several more serious sexual assaults against the child over a period of months while Ortiz’s wife babysat the child in their home. As a result, the charge was elevated to course of sexual conduct against a child.
This time, bail was set at $50,000, but reduced to $10,000. Ortiz made bail but failed to appear at his two next scheduled court dates and on January 7, 2000, a warrant was issued for his arrest.
On March 7, 2000, the Westchester District Attorney’s Office requested a Red Notice be issued internationally by Interpol.
On July 5, 2000, law enforcement received a tip that he had been seen in El Salvador, his native country, but he could not be located. In 2012, the US Marshals Service learned he was in Guatemala living under an assumed name. He was apprehended in August 2016 and after exhausting attempts to avoid extradition, Ortiz was returned to the US on May 3, 2017.
When sentenced in November he faces up to 25 years in state prison.
