Mother of sexually abused minor speaks out about “unfair sentencing”

A 66-year-old man is behind bars after molesting an 11-year-old six years ago.

The girl’s mother said her then 11-year-old daughter was repeatedly molested for about one year. Thermal resident John Ruiz Ureste was sentenced on Friday. The mother says seeking justice has taken six years and the healing process will take much longer.

“It was a very, very hard six years, waiting to finally go to trial and at the end to hear we were going to make a deal wasn’t fair. It wasn’t fair,” the vitim’s mothersaid.

She didn’t want her name shared, in order to protect her and her daughter’s identity.

Ureste was sentenced to less than a year in jail and five years probation. It’s a sentencing the mother isn’t satisfied with.

“For just one penal code of 288, he should be in prison for 3 to 6 years. He was sentenced with seven and they’re all 288’s. He should be in prison for at least 50 years, that’s the total of all his sentence, and getting 360 days in jail is a very, very light sentence,” the mother said.

She’s encouraging other victims and families of abuse to speak out.

“They need to talk. They need to speak. Someone has to speak for those kids,” the mother said.

In her case, her daughter was threatened to stay quiet.

“This person was telling her he would take her away. She got afraid when this person said they were going to run away,” the mother said. “You need to tell the kids, if someone tries to touch them and they tell you I’m going to hurt your mom, you need to tell them that’s not true. That’s not going to happen.”

“If your kids love to draw, make designs, draw pictures, look at what they’re drawing. What they’re putting there. Look at how your kid plays with toys. Were they playing normal and now they’re playing aggressive with the toys? There’s changes of mood with kids. You have to know how to read signs of your kids,” the victim’s mother said.

There are a number of local resources to help you deal with assault including, Coachella Valley Sexual Assault Services in Palm Desert (Walk-Ins Welcome), San Bernardino Sexual Assault Services at 1-800-656-4673 (Toll-Free hotline), Shelter from the Storm. Lists of numerous youth shelters in the county.