A South Bay man is awaiting sentencing Jan. 16 after he pleaded guilty to false imprisonment of a 13-year-old girl and three separate sexual battery charges involving a ruse with a wheelchair.
Jose Alfredo Plascencia, 51, faces a maximum sentence of four years and six months in state prison, said Deputy District Attorney Meredith Pro on Dec. 24. The false imprisonment charge is a felony while the three sexual battery charges are misdemeanors.
The most serious incident occurred May 29 when a 13-year-old girl was walking home from school in the 700 block of Picador Boulevard in Otay Mesa. Plascencia drove up in a black SUV and told her he had been in an accident. He then asked her if she needed a ride.
Plascencia grabbed her left wrist and tried to pull her into the vehicle, but she ran off. She called police. Physical evidence against him includes a swab by an evidence technician from her wrist where he had grabbed her. Police officers arrested him on Deanery Road on May 31.
An 84-year-old woman testified at an Aug. 30 preliminary hearing before Chula Vista Superior Court Judge Patricia Garcia and said she saw Plascencia in a wheelchair in an aisle at a South Bay Walmart store on March 29.
She said he asked her for a hug, so she felt sorry for him and hugged him, only to discover he then touched her breasts through her clothing. She said he then walked out of his wheelchair.
A 29-year-old woman testified about encountering Plascencia in a wheelchair in a parking lot of Walgreens in the South Bay on April 6. She said he told her he was supposed to get 200 hugs a day and asked if he could hug her.
The woman said when he hugged her, he also touched her and her daughter’s breasts.
“I don’t (approve) of you turning your disability to take advantage of people. That’s just wrong,” the woman recalled telling Plascencia.
“You’re out here getting free feels and hugs from people and you saying you had a stroke. You’re just nasty, nasty!” the woman testified she told Plascencia at the time.
When he was arrested, Plascencia lived in San Ysidro, but he has previously lived in Chula Vista and National City. Attempted kidnapping and other related charges were dismissed.
He remains in jail on $500,000 bail.
