Security video shows brazen sexual assault of California woman by homeless man



The alleged sexual assault of a woman by a homeless man was captured by surveillance video on the sidewalk in Long Beach, California.

The video from Friday at about 2 p.m. shows a woman walking by a man sitting on the sidewalk on Linden Avenue past Wabi Sabi Village Market.

The man got up after she passed him and followed her. He allegedly exposed himself and sexually assaulted her from behind. She fell to the ground, and a bystander tried to intervene and chased him away after he adjusted his pants.

Police said they responded to the incident soon after, but the man had fled from the area. Hours later, they arrested a suspect: 30-year-old Miguel Avila. Police said Avila is homeless.

Long Beach Police Department spokesperson Alyssa Baeza said that Avila was booked on suspicion of sexual battery as well as suspicion of theft of personal property from an open warrant. He is being held on $1,000 bail.

Residents in the neighborhood said it's becoming increasingly dangerous because of the homeless crisis.

"It was horrifying to see," said Long Beach resident Jason Greenleaf to KTLA-TV. “I mean, this neighborhood is out of control.”

Others told KTLA that businesses had shut down because people were afraid to walk around in the area.

“The police call this area ‘The Beast,’” Greenleaf continued. “They say they don’t have enough officers to patrol the area and they tell us not to do anything. We’re in a predicament.”

Joe Harding, another resident, said the problems extended beyond homelessness.

“A lot of people just want to use the word ‘homeless’ as a blanket description, but we don’t like that term,” Harding told KTLA. “Those that are out on the streets that are violent, that are addicted, mentally unstable, perpetually homeless and kind of socially inept are adding to the problems that we have here.”

The median home listing price in Long Beach is $808,000 according to Realtor.com.

Here's the surveillance video of the incident:

Cameras capture sexual assault on Long Beach street www.youtube.com

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Transient man pleads guilty to sex crimes against 16-year-old with special needs who was found in his camper after going missing



A transient man pleaded guilty to multiple sex crimes against a 16-year-old with special needs who went missing and was found in his camper days later at a homeless encampment.

Tarynn Finn was reported missing in Jan. 2021 by her family in Santee, California, a suburb of San Diego. She was found 5 days later in a massive encampment in the unincorporated area of San Diego County.

Police arrested 32-year-old Rodolfo Emmanuel Ledesma in Nov. 2021 after an investigation and charged him with sex crimes according to KUSI-TV.

The teenager is receiving treatment to deal with the traumatic experience she underwent.

Sharie Finn, the mother of the teenager, spoke to KUSI about what they believe the man was doing with their daughter.

"Their intent was to move her up to northern California and start trafficking her up there, but by the grace of God she was found," said the mother.

She said that the family had accepted a plea agreement in order to avoid forcing her daughter to face the turmoil of testifying in court. She said Ledesma faced 25 years to life in prison for the charges but that the plea agreement was for 13 years and four months in prison.

Sharie Finn said that while she and a team of volunteers were looking for her daughter that she discovered a tunnel running under a freeway to the homeless encampment with rampant criminal drug and sex trafficking activity.

Finn has organized a nonprofit organization called the Rad Movement that provides comfort for victims of sex crimes and sex trafficking.

Here's a local news report about the incident:

East County San Diego transient facing many charges in sex crimes case pleads guiltywww.youtube.com