WOODLAND — The owner of a Davis day-care center pleaded not guilty to molest and resisting-arrest charges Tuesday, just hours after state licensing officials announced a temporary suspension of the facility’s license to operate.
Eduardo Letelier. Courtesy photo
Eduardo Alejandro Letelier, 43, appeared in Yolo Superior Court alongside his defense attorney, Michael Chastaine, who sought to reduce his client’s bail at the Yolo County Jail from $1 million to $250,000.
Visiting Judge Stephen Mock denied the request, but ordered that Letelier surrender his passport, stay away from minor children and be subject to GPS monitoring in the event he does post bail.
Letelier is due back in court July 27 for the setting of a preliminary hearing date.
Davis police arrested Letelier last Thursday, a day after the mother of a 4-year-old girl reported that her daughter had been sexually assaulted at the 816 Braddock Court day-care facility Letelier operates with his wife, Ximena Murillo Letelier, who is not facing criminal charges.
According to an allegation filed Monday by attorneys for the state Department of Social Services, the girl claimed that, while brushing her teeth in a bathroom, Eduardo Letelier placed his penis in her mouth and told her he was “checking for cavities.”
Chastaine said the accusation is false.
“We’re quite confident that when all the facts are known, the evidence will show that Eduardo is not guilty of this,” the defense attorney told reporters after the brief arraignment hearing, attended by a group of Letelier’s supporters. “These are allegations made by a 4-year-old who I’m sure believes in Santa Claus and the tooth fairy. … The question is, how do you undo all this?”
Assistant Chief Deputy District Attorney Melinda Aiello, who is prosecuting the case, spent much of Tuesday’s hearing justifying Letelier’s high bail amount, noting that the molestation charge filed against him carries a potential life sentence, and that the defendant poses a potential flight risk.
“We had information that he was going to be fleeing the country,” Aiello said, adding that Letelier allegedly ran from the officers who arrived at his house with a search warrant last week.
Chastaine said Letelier suffers from rheumatoid arthritis, and “I can’t imagine him running anywhere.” As for the flight-risk claim, “there is no truth to that whatsoever.”
License suspended
Earlier Tuesday, the state Department of Social Services’ Community Care Licensing Division announced the temporary licensing suspension for Ximena’s Daycare, which has operated at the Leteliers’ home in South Davis since 2001.
“Respondent Eduardo Alejandro Letelier engaged in conduct that is inimical to the health, morals, welfare and/or safety of either an individual in or receiving services from the facility,” reads the accusation signed by Pamela Dickfoss, deputy director of the licensing division.
The suspension order is considered temporary because the Leteliers have a right to appeal this decision and request a hearing before an administrative law judge, DSS spokesman Michael Weston said.
Evaluation reports released by DSS officials earlier this week show no history of investigations triggered by complaints at the day-care facility, and the three most recent site visits — which are conducted unannounced and at random — failed to raise any red flags.
“There were no deficiencies cited during the visit,” concluded the evaluation reports filed in 2012, 2014 and 2015.
Prior to then, the last reported site visit occurred in April 2007. At that time, the evaluator noted several violations, including swords hanging in an unlocked bedroom, a lack of child safety gates on the stairway, and a child-care roster that exceeded capacity.
All were eventually corrected, and the state granted the Leteliers a capacity increase from eight to 14 children in February 2014.
While the 2014 evaluation report notes that the Leteliers had criminal record clearances, records on file in Yolo Superior Court show that the couple at one point faced felony charges of fraudulent receipt of aid and perjury, filed in May 2007.
Documents in the files don’t detail the alleged conduct that led to the charges, but indicate that the aid received totaled more than $400.
The couple pleaded no contest to the fraud charges, which were reduced from felonies to misdemeanors, in October 2007, and successfully petitioned to have the convictions expunged in 2009 after completing probation, court records show.
A copy of the DSS temporary suspension order can be found here: Letelier Family Child Care Temporary Suspension Order
— Reach Lauren Keene at lkeene@davisenterprise.net or 530-747-8048. Follow her on Twitter at @laurenkeene