Attorney General Lockyer Announces Arrest of Residential Care Facility Employee on Rape Charges

Norwalk Caretaker Charged with Sexually Assaulting Two Dependent Adult Residents

Friday, June 25, 2004
Contact: (916) 210-6000, agpressoffice@doj.ca.gov

(NORWALK) – Attorney General Bill Lockyer today announced the arrest of a Norwalk residential care facility employee on charges of sexually assaulting two dependent adult residents of the facility.

Rommel Amado Sibal, 32, of Bellflower, was arrested today by Special Agents with the Attorney General's Bureau of Medi-Cal Fraud and Elder Abuse (BMFEA), and transported to the Los Angeles County Jail in Norwalk. He was charged with five counts of committing a lewd act on a dependent adult, one count of rape of an incompetent person and one count of oral copulation of an incompetent person. Bail was set at $700,000.

The charges stem from assaults on two dependent adult residents who resided at Norwalk Terrace, at 15602 Belshire Avenue in Norwalk, between September 2003 and March 2004. Both victims suffered from mental disorders which rendered them incapable of defending themselves or giving legal consent to any of the sexual acts.

Sibal had been employed as a medication clerk at the facility since June 2003. He was suspended in March 2004 when the facility's supervisors were notified of the BMFEA's criminal investigation. The investigation began when one of the victims reported the assaults to a mental health worker.

Given the access that Sibal had to other vulnerable dependent adults, Attorney General Lockyer urges anyone with information about additional victims to contact the BMFEA at 1-800-722-0432.

A copy of the criminal complaint, filed in Los Angeles Superior Court, is available online at http://www.ag.ca.gov/newsalerts/index.htm

# # #
AttachmentSize
PDF icon 04-067.pdf176.3 KB
PDF icon 04-067.pdf176.3 KB