A 33-year-old sheriff’s deputy who groped a teenage girl while standing behind her in a Vista fast-food restaurant line was sentenced Wednesday to a year in jail and ordered to register as a sex offender for life.
Timothy Nathaniel Wilson Jr., who was also placed on five years probation and ordered to stay away from the victim for 10 years, pleaded guilty earlier this month to committing a lewd act with a 14-year-old child and unlawfully taking computer data.
Vista Superior Court Judge Daniel Goldstein imposed the sentence called for under the plea deal. But he indicated the defendant’s act of using his unique username and password to log into a sheriff’s department database to access information on the investigation was an egregious offense that warranted a prison commitment, according to the District Attorney’s Office.
Wilson, a 10-year department veteran assigned to detentions enforcement at the Vista Jail, was arrested at work on May 18.
Authorities said Wilson fondled the 14-year-old’s buttocks about 7 p.m. March 21 while in line at Panda Express on Main Street, near South Santa Fe Avenue.
A surveillance system at the restaurant captured video of the perpetrator, who hurried out of the business and fled in a black sedan.
In early May, another sheriff’s department employee reported that Wilson possibly was the man in the security camera images, which was subsequently confirmed.
— City News Service