Authorities in the Los Angeles area are asking for the public’s help in identifying additional child victims of a former Warren, Ohio man accused of attempting to use women to babysit children as young as four, and bring the children to hotels so he could molest them.

Orange County, California District Attorney Todd Spitzer said in a press release that sexual assaults on young children are suspected to have occurred over several decades.

Jason Valentine Esparza, 57, has been charged with three felony counts of attempted oral copulation or sexual penetration of a child 10 years old or younger and two felony counts of attempted forcible lewd act on a child under the age of 14. He faces a maximum sentence of 16 years and four months if convicted on all counts.

He is currently jailed in California on $1 million bail. He is scheduled to be arraigned on April 28.

The Huntington Beach Police Department began investigating Esparza after receiving an anonymous cyber-tip from the Internet Crimes Against Children program in September 2022.

During the eight-month investigation, police department’s Crimes Against Persons Unit detectives began communicating with Esparza while posing as an adult female who was babysitting a four-year-old girl.  During those conversations, Esparza is accused of expressing his desire to perform very specific sexual acts on the child.

On April 7, 2023, Esparza was told that a child was in a Huntington Beach hotel room. He was arrested by undercover detectives when he entered the room.

“Someone who preys on the innocence of children for their own sexual gratification is a monster of indescribable evil,” said District Attorney Spitzer. “To plot, to calculate, and methodically carry out sexual attacks on unconscious children is something that can only be dreamt of and carried out by the sickest of

Esparza, who is originally from Warren, also has connections to Huntington Beach, Long Beach, and Fullerton, California.

 Anyone with information relating to Esparza is asked to call the Huntington Beach Police Department WeTip Hotline at (714) 375-5066. Anonymous tips can also be made to OC Crime Stoppers by calling (855) TIP-OCCS (1-855-847-6227).