Seaside man sentenced to prison for sex abuse
Jul. 6—A Seaside man was sentenced to nine years in prison for sexually abusing a 5-year-old girl in January 2021.
Manuel Cecilio Lopez Cruz, 38, pleaded guilty in Circuit Court on Tuesday to two counts of first-degree sex abuse.
Prosecutors said he touched the victim's vagina and anus while he babysat her and her 1-year-old brother at a Seaside residence.
When the mother came home, the girl told her what Lopez Cruz had done.
The mother took her Providence Seaside Hospital, then to Randall Children's Hospital at Legacy Emanuel Medical Center in Portland, Dawn Buzzard, the chief deputy district attorney who prosecuted Lopez Cruz, recounted in an email.
The defendant "first hid from police, then admitted that he was the only one who had been watching the children," Buzzard wrote.
Lopez Cruz entered an Alford plea on each count, meaning that, although he realized a jury would likely find him guilty, he maintained his innocence.
"I, personally, was very impressed with the mom, who negotiated the medical and justice system when English wasn't her first language," Buzzard wrote.
