Golden Gate man gets jail, probation in sex case

But Juan Jose Gomez Lopez probably will be deported back to Mexico and won’t be serving sex-offender probation

By AISLING SWIFT (Contact)
6:32 p.m., Sunday, July 12, 2009


Juan Jose Gomez-Lopez

COLLIER COUNTY — A Golden Gate man who faced life in prison accepted a plea bargain for jail time and 15 years of probation for molesting a 9-year-old girl.

But 33-year-old Juan Jose Gomez Lopez probably won’t be serving the sex-offender probation with a GPS ankle monitor. He’s an illegal alien being held in the county jail pending a deportation hearing — and a trip back to Mexico.

Collier Circuit Judge Frank Baker sentenced Gomez on July 7 to time served in the county jail since his arrest on Dec. 10, 2007, and probation as part of a plea agreement negotiated by Assistant State Attorney Deborah Cunningham and Assistant Public Defender Shannon Brown.

Gomez was charged with capital sexual battery and lewd and lascivious molestation, which are punishable by life in a state prison. Under the plea agreement, he pleaded to attempted sexual battery, a lesser-included charge, a first-degree felony punishable by up to 30 years in prison. Gomez knew the children.

“We made the agreement because we’ve been trying to locate the victim for quite some time,â€