APTOS — A Watsonville man charged with a number of counts of sexual assault on minors is related to a neighborhood deli franchise retailer, an authority revealed Friday.
The Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Workplace arrested Carlos Gomez Velasco, 39, on Wednesday. Gomez Velasco’s alleged victims embrace three minors who labored at his Erik’s DeliCafe in Rancho Del Mar Procuring Middle in Aptos, in line with Santa Cruz County Assistant District Lawyer Kristal Salcido. Every of the alleged assaults reportedly befell on the restaurant, she mentioned.
Gomez Velasco, who has been launched from jail on a bond, is scheduled to look for an arraignment listening to Tuesday morning in Santa Cruz County Superior Courtroom. He's dealing with one misdemeanor and 9 felony costs from a number of listed dates in 2020 and 2021, in line with courtroom information. The felonies embrace 4 counts of sexual battery, three counts of speaking with a minor for a lewd act and two counts of oral copulation of an individual below 18 years.
The Sentinel in 2018 reported that Gomez Velasco and spouse Vicky Gomez took over operations of the Erik’s DeliCafe after the procuring middle underwent a significant renovation. The eatery was the primary to maneuver again into the procuring middle’s new meals courtroom on the time. In response to the Erik’s Delicafé web site, the prior iteration of the restaurant had been at Rancho Del Mar since 1977 and was the corporate’s third retailer within the chain.
Brian Johnson, president and basic counsel for Erik’s DeliCafé Franchises Inc., described Gomez Velasco as an worker of Vicky Gomez’s, slightly than the enterprise’ co-owner. Nonetheless, a enterprise listing on the Aptos Chamber of Commerce web site on Friday continued to record “Carlos Gomez” as the only member identify related to the enterprise.
“We're conscious of the costs and Carlos, an worker of Erik’s DeliCafe of Aptos, has been placed on go away,” Johnson wrote Friday in an emailed response to a Sentinel inquiry. “We're taking the costs severely and staying updated on all out there data. Because the scenario develops, we're working with Vicky, the proprietor and franchisee, and her group.”
The Aptos Erik’s Deli franchise retailer was registered by agent Virginia Hernandez Aquino to proprietor CGVH Eating places LLC in 2018.
Police investigators are looking for data associated to different potential sexual assault victims.
“He labored for Erik’s Deli for about 20 years. He labored in a number of branches,” Salcido mentioned. “We now have three named victims to this point. We're extraordinarily involved that there are different victims, based mostly off of what occurred to the minors.”
Salcido urged group members with data associated to the case to contact Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Workplace detective Sgt. Zach West at 831-454-7645.