A 40-year-old Cypress man has been charged with multiple felonies in connection with torturing a child, sexually assaulting another child at age 14, and also abusing two other children, according to a press release from the Orange County District Attorney’s Office.
Douglas Alba, 40, of Cypress, has been charged with one felony count of torture, one felony count of child abuse and endangerment, and four felony counts of a corporal injury to a child.
He has also been charged with two felony counts of sodomy by force of a child 14 years or older, two felony counts of sexual penetration of a child 14 years old by a foreign object by force, one felony count of attempted forcible oral copulation of a child 14 years or older, and two felony counts of a lewd and lascivious act on a child 14 or 15 years old.
Alba faces a maximum sentence of 30 years to life if convicted on all charges, the District Attorney’s office said.
According to investigators for District Attorney Todd Spitzer say Alba is accused of abusing the children for nearly a year.
Authorities say the abuse was discovered only after the 10-year-old child was taken to the hospital last month with black eyes, bleeding to the brain, and bruising all over the child’s body.
Alba was arrested by the Cypress Police Department and is scheduled to be arraigned in Department C55 at the Central Justice Center in Santa Ana. Alba is currently being held at the Theo Lacy Facility on $1 million bail.
“The scars of child abuse go far beyond the physical,” said Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer, said in a statement.
“The psychological and emotional trauma these children were forced to endure shocks the conscience. Reports of child abuse have plummeted during the pandemic as children have been kept home and away from mandatory reporters at schools and daycare,” he said.
“We as a community have an obligation to protect the innocent and report any and all suspected child abuse to the authorities. We protect our children by speaking up.”
Deputy District Attorney Mike Hernandez of the Family Protection Unit is prosecuting this case, the D.A.’s office said.