People v. Cortez CA1/4

I.

INTRODUCTION

Following his guilty plea to continuous sexual abuse of a child (Pen. Code, section 288.5, subd. (a))1, the trial court ordered appellant to pay $115,747.50 restitution to cover the cost for the minor victim to attend an out-of-state private therapeutic boarding school for middle and high school-aged girls. As he did below, appellant claims on appeal “the trial court’s order that appellant pay for [the victim’s] private school education in the amount of $115,747.50 exceeds the bounds of reasonableness and cannot stand.” He argues that there was no causal relationship between the need for the victim to attend the private boarding school and his sexual misconduct. We affirm, finding the court did not abuse its discretion and substantial evidence supports the trial court’s restitution order.

1 All further statutory references are to the Penal Code, unless otherwise indicated.

II.

PROCEDURAL HISTORY

On August 9, 2012, a felony complaint was filed by the San Francisco District Attorney charging appellant with continuous sexual abuse of a child (§ 288.5, subd. (a), count one), two counts of oral copulation of a minor (§ 288a, subd. (c)(1), counts two and three),…