Convicted sex offender German Baeza was in court today accused of raping a Bakersfield teen. The 27-year old was being monitored by GPS as a parole condition, but was able to cut if off and run free for more than two weeks before being caught.
During that two week period, police said Baeza attacked two more teenage girls. He is charged with raping and kidnapping a 15-year old girl and attempting to rape and kidnap a 14-year old girl. There are a total of seven charges against Baeza, but he did not enter a plea in court.
Baeza is a registered sex offender convicted of rape in 2004.
"Serious offenders who have been committed and sentenced to prison and released are supposed to be on GPS," Matt Fontaine, Adult Services Director at the Probation Department said.
Sex offenders are reuqired to register each year and provide their living address.
"They are supposed to register annually within five days of their birthday," Mary DeGeare, Bakersfield Police Department, said. "If they move to another location, they are supposed to register at that location immediately."
Jessica's Law says sex offenders are not allowed to live within 2000 feet of where children gather like a park or school. The ankle monitoring bracelet helps police know where sex offenders are at all times.
"They may have an area where they have to stay within or they may have a time frame they have to stay at their house," DeGeare said. "If they go outside those parameters, parol is alerted immediately. If the bracelet is cut off they are alerted immediately."
17 News contacted the local and state parol office multiple times to find out why the public was not alerted when Baeza cut off his monitoring device. The office did not return our calls.
Baeza is in custody on two-million dollars bail and faces 50 years to life in prison if convicted. He will be back in court August 12.
