SANTA ANA, Calif. — Content warning: The content of this story may be disturbing to some readers.
A 30-year-old Palmdale man was sentenced Wednesday to 2 1/2 years in jail for smearing his semen on a co-worker's computer keyboard and mouse, in her honey jar and in half-consumed bottles of water and lotion on her desk in the La Palma office they shared.
Stevens Millancastro, who was convicted Sept. 21, must also register as a sex offender for the rest of his life. Millancastro was convicted of two counts of battery and three counts of assault by Orange County Superior Court Judge Kathleen Roberts, who decided the case without a jury.
Roberts was going to sentence the defendant to two years in jail plus five years of probation, but Millancastro rejected probation, so the judge tacked on the extra six months. Millancastro was given credit for serving 74 days behind bars.
"We also know from his own testimony, and the testimony from the doctor, that he placed his semen on her items more times than he was actually charged," Roberts said.
"This is much more serious and invasive than a normal punch or hit or slap," Roberts said, explaining why she was doling out the maximum punishment. "This was a sexually motivated act... It is emotionally devastating to the victim."
Roberts pointed out that the defendant "harassed her for four years, staring at her, making her feel uncomfortable at work to the point she altered her clothing."
At some point the woman finally complained informally three times and then ultimately made a formal complaint, Roberts said.
"When she finally made the formal complaint the defendant was forced to undergo sexual harassment training," Roberts said. "He chose to ejaculate into her items and that was after sexual harassment training."
The judge said his "sexual revenge" was a "sophisticated scheme to get her to ingest his semen after she reported him."
Michael Morrison of the Orange County Public Defender's Office disputed that his client committed his crimes out of sexual gratification, saying it was only for revenge.
Deputy District Attorney Laila Nikaien argued that the defendant was sexually aroused by the victim eating and drinking his semen. "He is a deviant... It's a form of having power over the victim, of humiliating them. That's what a sex offender does. That's what the defendant did... He did it once and got his jollies off and wanted to keep doing it."
Roberts also noted when she convicted the defendant last month that he testified that after the first time he fouled the victim's belongings, "his anger was not satisfied," and said he did not need counseling.
"That makes someone very dangerous to the community," she said, adding that the victim "hesitated to speak up for herself to complain formally because she knew the defendant and her boss were close friends and she thought there would be repercussions on her."
The judge noted there were eight separate acts in late 2016 and early 2017 and said she took into consideration the sexual harassment, though it was not criminal.
"His anger grew out of control," she said. "The evidence shows he can't control his anger. That is a red flag to the court that he cannot control himself."
Millancastro and the woman, whose name was not publicly revealed, had worked together since 2014, according to Nikaien, who said the defendant "actually trained the victim."
The woman testified that Millancastro started asking her out via an instant messaging system at work.
"He mentioned something about picking me up. I had no clue what he was talking about," she testified. "He was basically asking me out to the movies. I said, no, I have a boyfriend."
"Did he keep asking?" Nikaien asked.
"Yes," the victim testified. "He would stare at me all day ... in an uncomfortable way, a crazy way."
Nikaien said the defendant "would check her out from head to toe. He would stare at her when she walked to a printer... when she walked to a filing cabinet near her desk... It got so bad... she would wear a sweater around her waist... to prevent him from looking at her."
Ultimately, she "made an informal complaint to her boss," the prosecutor said. "He was told to stop, but he kept staring at her. To the point, about a month later... the victim filed a formal complaint with HR for the defendant incessantly staring at her."
A short time later in November 2016, she noticed a half-consumed bottle of water she had left on her desk looked "cloudy" and threw it away, Nikaien said.
"A week after that, she left another half drunken bottle of water open on her desk and when she comes back to work again the next day, the water is cloudy and she's suspicious so she throws it away," Nikaien said. "A week later she finds another bottle of half-drunken water on her desk and this time she opens it up."
The woman's "boss then had a team set up a surveillance camera next to the victim's desk," and it captured the defendant after hours on Jan. 12, 2017, as he "grabbed some tissues and walked over to the bathroom... " the prosecutor said. "He masturbates to arousal, he ejaculates... then what we see next on surveillance is he's holding up the crumpled tissue walking right to the victim's desk."
