Victoria man accused of child sexual abuse

Sept. 15--U.S. marshals arrested a 53-year-old Victoria man Wednesday morning on warrants charging him with 43 counts of sex crimes involving children.

Victor Cisneros was charged with two counts of continuous sexual abuse of a child, 24 counts of aggravated sexual assault of a child, three counts of indecency with a child and 14 counts of indecency with a child by exposure, according to a U.S. Marshals Service news release.

Cisneros remained in the Victoria County Jail on Thursday night in lieu of a $500,000 bond, a jail official said.

U.S. marshals with the aid of Victoria Police Department detectives arrested Cisneros outside a home in the 1000 block of East Virginia Street about 9:30 a.m. Wednesday, said Deputy U.S. Marshal Max Hernandez. During the arrest, authorities seized two cellphones to search them for child pornography or other evidence, he said.

Cisneros did not resist and was arrested without incident, Hernandez said.

"He stayed quiet," he said.

Although the police requested the help of the U.S. Marshals Service in locating and arresting Cisneros, department investigators were responsible for the investigation that led to his apprehension.

The Victoria Police Department could not answer questions regarding the victim or victims' age, gender, city of residence or relation to Cisneros before publication Thursday night. The department also could not provide details about how investigators built their case against him.

According to a nine-page criminal complaint, Cisneros is accused of performing sexual acts with a child or children under the age of 14 from 2014 to 2017.

Ric Tinney, Hope of South Texas executive director, said statistics show about one in 10 children in the U.S. will be sexually abused, and only one out of the 10 abused children will tell someone about that abuse.

"That's why it is important for the child to be able to tell and for people to believe them," he said.

Since 2002, Hope of South Texas has performed forensic interviews with child sexual abuse victims.

Those interviews, which are video recorded, are conducted in safe, child-friendly environments to document victims' abuse in their own words, Tinney said.

"If you can imagine a 6-year-old going to the police department to do an interview -- that's scary, so we try to make it as non-scary as possible," he said.

The videos are then turned over to authorities to help prosecutors bring abusers to justice.

"The first step to healing is being able to let go of the secret," Tinney said.

___

(c)2017 Victoria Advocate (Victoria, Texas)

Visit Victoria Advocate (Victoria, Texas) at www.victoriaadvocate.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.