California Dem Ex-Mayor Pleads No Contest to Multiple Child Sex Crimes

Robert Jacob, former Democratic mayor in Northern California, has pleaded guilty to six child sex charges.

Jacob, 45, was the former mayor in Sebastopol, Sonoma County. He reached a plea agreement earlier this month, ahead of Friday’s jury trials.

The victim, a minor, who was 16 at the time of the hearing, testified that Jacob had introduced him to him on the Grindr dating app.

Jacob knew that Jacob was underage, claimed the minor.

According to the victim’s account, he touched him sexually multiple occasions, invited unknown men for sex, and sent him nude photographs.

Fox News reportedJacob pleaded guilty to charges including contacting the victim in order to commit a specific offense and arranging to meet him to engage with lewd or lascivious acts. Jacob also pled no contest to sexual abuse of a victim younger than 15.

As part of Jacob’s plea deal, five other felony counts were dismissed, the San Francisco Chronicle reported, citing online records from the Sonoma County District Attorney’s Office.

The Press Democrat reported the case came to light in 2021, when someone, possibly the victim or his parents, reported the sexual assaults to child protective services, which relayed them to the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office, said Sebastopol Police Chief Ron Nelson.

Because the assaults, which occurred between December 2019 and March 2021, took place in Jacob’s home in Sebastopol, they were referred to Sebastopol police, who arrested him on April 10, 2021, Nelson said.

According to Pink NewsJacob has made a successful career in the cannabis industry. His cannabis company merged with SPARC, a dispensary, in recent years.

Erich Pearson (founder and chief executive of SPARC) stated in a statement that Jacob was not his. “affiliated or associated with SPARC” For several years.

He described the allegations as “horrible and unconscionable,” adding:

“These abuses of power have no place in our communities nor our society, and have gone on for far too long. Our hearts and support go out to the victim and their families, and we at SPARC wish to make a clear statement that we believe victims and survivors, and this behaviour in no way reflects on the culture and values that we hold dear.”

Jacob was a member of the Sebastopol City Council from 2012 to 2013, before he was elected mayor.

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