A dead baby spurs an investigation into layers of victimhood.

At 8:30am Saturday morning, Aug. 1, sheriff’s deputies were dispatched to a report of a baby on the side of Struve Road in Moss Landing where they discovered a dead infant. Investigators started calling her “baby Angelita,” Spanish for little angel.

Five days later, the Sheriff’s Office released images, captured by Flock cameras, of a vehicle of interest, a beige 2010 Mercury sedan. Then four weeks later, on Aug. 31, Sheriff Tina Nieto announced her team had made one arrest and obtained arrest warrants for two other suspects.

Ofelia Garcia Ortega, a 36-year-old from Castroville, had been arrested on charges of child endangerment, booked in Monterey County Jail, and released. An arrest warrant was issued for Sergio Galvez Perez, 38, on charges of child endangerment, incest, lewd acts with a minor and unlawful sexual intercourse, among others.

Jane Doe, 14, the mother, was suspected of murder, according to the Sheriff’s Office.

The layers of horrors here are tragic in their proportions. Garcia Ortega is Jane Doe’s mother. Galvez Perez is Jane Doe’s father. He is also her suspected rapist and the father of her dead baby.

This all means that whatever role Jane Doe did or did not have in ending her infant daughter’s life, Jane Doe is a victim of horrific crimes. Somehow, that seemed to get missed in the press release and some of the media frenzy immediately surrounding the sheriff’s request for assistance in locating Galvez Perez and his daughter, who he is believed to be concealing. “California father, teen mother wanted,” “A 14-year-old girl is wanted on suspicion of murdering her newborn,” headlines read.

The whereabouts of Galvez Perez and Jane Doe are unknown, leading the California Highway Patrol to issue an Amber Alert on Sept. 6 at the request of the Sheriff’s Office. But two days after the arrest warrants were announced, on Sept. 2, District Attorney Jeannine Pacioni issued a very different kind of press release. “The District Attorney’s Office is providing the following clarification,” it stated.

It went on to describe Jane Doe not as a murderer, but as a victim. “We recognize that the 14-year-old is a victim of her father’s abuse. No child should ever have to endure such horrific circumstances…children who have experienced abuse can face extraordinary barriers to safety and may be unable to seek help on their own, particularly when they are under the control or influence of an abuser,” the DA’s statement reads. “Our priority is to ensure that this young girl is safe and has access to the support and services she needs.”

“The 14-year-old is a victim of her father’s abuse.”

To be clear, this is not necessarily an exoneration but it is a critical reframing of a horrible circumstance. Jane Doe may be a perpetrator, but that does not mean she is not a victim.

The DA has filed charges against Galvez Perez, and is reviewing potential charges against Jane Doe’s mother, Garcia Ortega. No decision about possible charges against Jane Doe has been made yet, and the DA had not yet received a request for charges or any investigative reports from law enforcement officers.

Pacioni’s press release was an important reframing to put victims first, but it also communicates something else: a very public slapdown of one elected official, the sheriff, by another elected official, the District Attorney. It does not imply a vote of confidence.

Nieto also elevated her own politics in announcing the warrants. In five minutes of remarks, she talked a lot about the value of Flock cameras, opening and closing with praise for the technology that is currently facing scrutiny as she prepares to ask the Monterey County Board of Supervisors for a $2.8 million, 10-year contract with Flock on Tuesday, Sept. 22.

“These cameras do not replace deputies, they do not replace police work,” she said. “There will always be conversations about privacy safeguards and how technology is used…In this investigation of baby Angelita it meant detectives who started with almost nothing were able to develop critical leads. Behind every camera is not just a license plate—there may be a victim waiting for justice.”

Nieto did acknowledge that Jane Doe, a child, is also a victim. Her life, and her baby’s very brief life at the side of the road, are surely what matters most here. 

SARA RUBIN is the Weekly’s editor. Reach her at sara@montereycountynow.com.