San Jose cop charged with molesting girl was accused of domestic violence, sought foster parent credential

The San Jose Police officer charged with molesting a teenage girl more than a decade ago had been seeking certification as a foster parent and also was accused by his former wife of physically abusing her years earlier.

The new information concerning Officer Saul Duran, documented in publicly available court filings in 2010 relating to child custody issues and the divorce of his first wife, raises questions about whether that should have raised concerns with local authorities at the time.

Any significant evidence of abuse would “definitely be a red flag,” said Steve Baron, a former social worker and member of, but not speaking for, the county’s Child Abuse Prevention Task Force. But he said that information might not have come to light if the alleged abuse wasn’t documented in police or court records, especially if it didn’t occur in Santa Clara County.

In the 2010 child custody court records from Santa Clara County, Duran contended his former wife’s allegations of domestic violence were “unfounded and untrue.” Duran’s lawyer, Christopher Lamiero, did not respond to a message Friday to discuss the allegations.

San Jose hired Duran as an officer in 2003. In response to questions, the San Jose Police Department said in a statement Friday it can’t discuss Duran’s personnel record. But in general, potential hires go through thorough background checks conducted by active officers, who review personal and criminal history.

“Criminal history includes any police contacts,” the police statement said. “In addition, primary references are interviewed, including family members and/or spouses, as well as secondary references obtained during that process.”

Duran, who has been placed on leave, was freed after posting $250,000 bail. Prosecutors earlier this week charged Duran with five counts of sexual misconduct with a minor. Duran met the girl and her older sister as early as 2008 while Duran was a mentor in a Santa Clara County-sponsored “Parent Project” that provides guidance to parents raising difficult teens, officials said. The girl was 14 at the time, while her sister was 15. Both said they were victims of sex abuse, police said, but prosecutors said they could only bring charges involving the younger one.

Prosecutors said Duran was removed from the Parent Project in 2017, after violating the program’s policy by spending time with class participants — both adults and juveniles — outside the program. Duran’s behavior was “concerning,” but not criminal, District Attorney Jeff Rosen said during a news conference announcing the charges earlier this week. His office, which ran the Parent Project, did not notify the county’s child welfare agency at the time.

“Hindsight is always 20-20, but the issues with Duran at the Parent Project were not things that would generate a mandated report to DFCS or law enforcement,” the district attorney’s office said in a statement in response to questions by the Bay Area News Group. “It would have been better for all to know what we do now much earlier, but we didn’t. The case is heartbreaking, and we ask that anyone who was a victim to come forward and contact the San Jose Police Department.”

By 2010, Duran had remarried, this time to a woman who works as a criminal investigator for the District Attorney. She filed for divorce in May 2012 — the same year authorities allege in a news release that Duran was sexually abusing one of the sisters. Three months later, Duran’s wife withdrew her petition, and the divorce case was dismissed. In 2014, the case was “purged” from the Santa Clara County court file, and no case documents are available, records show.

The county’s Department of Family and Children’s Services, which runs the foster parent program, did not confirm whether Duran had served as a foster parent as state law says foster parent information is confidential. But the agency said it didn’t learn about Duran’s Monday arrest and underlying charges until this week.

“DFCS is requesting more information from the San Jose Police Department on this case and will also be following up with all other law enforcement partners to ensure they timely report to DFCS any allegations of child abuse or neglect,” the agency said in a statement. When such allegations are raised against a foster parent, DFCS “immediately ceases placement at the foster home and conducts a child welfare investigation into the allegations.”

The allegations of domestic abuse against Duran arose in Santa Clara County Superior Court documents filed in 2010 by Duran’s former wife, Isela Ocegueda, over child custody issues. They divorced in 2003, the same year Duran was hired as a San Jose Police officer.

“I have police records on file documenting physical abuse, harassment and vandalism in El Paso, TX and Santa Cruz,” Ocegueda stated in the court document.

She completed a “domestic violence questionnaire,” she wrote, and submitted “sufficient evidence of abuse” to Santa Clara County’s Department of Child Support Services.

“Make no mistake about it, my fear and discomfort are real,” she wrote. “This is precisely why our child pick-up and drop-off location is at a public place, because I do not feel safe or secure in him approaching my private home. … I fear that yet another violent altercation would take place as it had so many times before.”

In his own court declaration filed a week after Ocegueda in 2010, Duran said that she had “absolutely nothing to base her ‘fear’ on.”

“Her only basis is a domestic violence questionnaire,” he wrote.

Reviews of court databases in Santa Cruz and El Paso counties show no criminal court cases against Duran. Foster parents are generally fingerprinted, which also would show any arrests if they are run through a police database.

In the same 2010 court filing, Duran defended his parenting skills, saying he earned a sociology degree from the University of Texas at El Paso and was a mentor for first-year West Valley College students in Saratoga and the county’s “Parent Project.” He also wrote that he was a “foster parent candidate” and attending county classes to become one. West Valley College said Friday it had no record of his student mentorship.

At the time, Duran wrote, he was a detective for the San Jose Police Department’s sexual assault unit.