Santa Ana Councilman Bustamante Arrested for 12 Felonies, Including Assault, Attempted Sexual Battery, False Imprisonment
Posted by Chris Nguyen on July 2, 2012
Carlos Bustamante
The Office of District Attorney Tony Rackauckas has issued a media advisory indicating that Santa Ana City Councilman Carlos Bustamante (the former Director of Administrative Services for OC Public Works) has been arrested for twelve felonies: grand theft by false pretense, stalking, attempted sexual battery by restraint, three counts of assault with the intent to commit a sexual offense, and six counts of false imprisonment. The arrest also included four misdemeanors and a sentencing enhancement, according to the media advisory:
Orange County District Attorney
Media Advisory
WHO: Orange County District Attorney (OCDA) Tony Rackauckas
WHAT: Will hold a press conference to discuss the criminal charges against Santa Ana City Councilman and former administration manager for Orange County Public Works Carlos Bustamante.
Bustamante was arrested today, Monday, July 2, 2012, at 4:30 p.m. by OCDA Investigators on six felony counts of false imprisonment, three felony counts of assault with the intent to commit a sexual offense, one felony count each of stalking, attempted sexual battery by restraint, and grand theft by false pretense, and one misdemeanor count each of battery, assault, sexual battery, and attempted sexual battery with a sentencing enhancement allegation for committing the offenses as a result of sexual compulsion and for the purpose of sexual gratification.
WHEN: Tomorrow, Tuesday, July 3, 2012, at 9:30 a.m.
Media will be permitted to set up beginning at 8:00 a.m.
WHERE: Law Library of the OCDA’s Office, 401 Civic Center Drive W., Santa Ana
Here’s the coverage from the local news media:
- OC Register: Ex-county official arrested on sex charges
- LA Times: Santa Ana councilman arrested on sex charges
- CBS 2 / KCAL 9: Santa Ana City Councilman Arrested On Sexual Battery Charges
- NBC 4: Santa Ana Councilman Carlos Bustamante Arrested on Several Felony Counts
- KTLA Channel 5: OC Councilman, Carlos Bustamante, Accused of Sexual Misconduct
- ABC 7: Santa Ana City Councilman Carlos Bustamante arrested, charged with sexual battery, assault
- KFI-AM 640: OC Councilman Arrest
- KPCC-FM 89.3: Santa Ana councilman Bustamante arrested on over a dozen charges, including 6 felonies
- Voice of OC: Santa Ana City Councilman Arrested on Sex Charges
- OC Weekly: Carlos Bustamante, Santa Ana Councilmember, Arrested on Charges of Sex Crimes/Stalking/False Imprisonment
Here’s The Liberal OC‘s post on the Bustamante arrest.
The Associated Press has the story too, as shown here in the San Jose Mercury-News.
Elected in 2004, Bustamante is the Santa Ana Council’s sole Republican. He is eligible to run for a third term, but this arrest makes that campaign extremely unlikely.
OC Political 
Cleared for Takeoff said
“Extremely unlikely”? You mean finished, KAPUT. Water bra Bustamante needs to resign his Council position now and never be seen in public again (hopefully the County Jail will provide at least part of that).
As usual, our professional unelected internal County management are the real criminals here — with the number of FELONY counts and victims involved, no one can believe that senior managers were unaware of this nonsense, and culpable in it. What will be the costs of the harassment suits that are bound to emerge from seven felonies?
CAO Tom Mauk needs to resign (and the Public Works Director) — his “leadership” in allowing this to fester ought to be considered a firing offense. Shame on the Supervisor who does NOT call for this clown to be terminated at the next Board meeting. If and when this justifiably happens, I suppose the next insult we’ll endure is learning how much ol’ Carlos is going to make off his County pension and healthcare once he gets out of the can.
John said
Carlos worked under Mauk before he went to public works and was always flirting with the ladies.
It’s terrible that Jess C. Was the fall guy because he had just moved to public works after all that billing issues were discover.
Mauk should have been the fall guy because Carlos was his Latino Lap dog.
Actually, the orange juice had these long winded rants years ago which brought out these issues from some person that seemed very scorned. (they are in the comments section when carlos was dealing with the waterbra comment)
Comment section might have persuaded this person to be more aggressive in reporting. That is a shame that within the county institution there was no where this person could seemingly report these disturbing acts.
Cleared for Takeoff said
Editors Note: This comment has been redacted due to it being an attack on someone not relevant to the post.
Francisco Barragan said
@ Chris Nguyen:
TV Channel 52 (Spanish media) also had a brief mention of the arrest of Councilman Bustamante at their 6:00pm segment towards the very end. TV 52 also stated they would be doing a follow-up today.
Paco Barragan
Greg Diamond said
Admins, I’ll understand if you want to remove this comment (and I consent to it), but I do want to alert people to the article that Vern Nelson has published at my local blog home Orange Juice, which is provocative in itself and has a comments section that is more so:
http://www.orangejuiceblog.com/2012/07/did-oc-ceo-tom-mauk-cover-up-bustamantes-ravages-for-months-and-what-did-supervisor-campbell-know/
Anyone who wants to know what’s going on really ought to read it. It now includes Vern’s live-blogging from Rackaukus’s press conference.
Fair and Balanced said
Editors Note: This comment has been redacted due to it being an attack on an individual not relevant to the post.
Coralina said
thanks for the useful information.