Fugitive Sex Offender Found Living In Menlo Park Backyard
MENLO PARK (BCN) -- A man who evaded police for more than seven years after he was convicted of sexual assault in San Mateo County was arrested Wednesday in Menlo Park, where he was living in an illegal structure in a backyard, police said Thursday.
Detectives from a narcotics enforcement team went to a home in the 1200 block of Sevier Road around 2:30 p.m. on a complaint of a building code violation, Menlo Park police Detective Ed Soares said.
Officers found several occupants living in an illegal structure behind the home, Soares said.
"There appeared to be two adults and some other younger children," he said.
Among them was 26-year-old Marco Vargas-Ortiz, of Redwood City, who in 2003 pleaded no contest to charges he committed lewd and lascivious acts with a child under the age of 14, according to the San Mateo County District Attorney's Office.
Vargas-Ortiz had been sentenced to a three-year suspended prison sentence with the provision he serve nine months in county jail, according to the district attorney's office.
The defendant never served his sentence, police said.
Vargas-Ortiz was booked Wednesday night into San Mateo County jail on the outstanding felony arrest warrant, police said.
He is scheduled to be arraigned at 8:45 a.m. Friday in Redwood City.
Detectives reported seizing a pistol-grip assault shotgun from the Menlo Park residence, police said.
No arrests have been made in connection with the weapon or the illegal structure, Soares said.
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