St. Cloud Police arrested a St. Cloud mother and her boyfriend after a 7-year-old girl reported that he had been sexually assaulted for over a year.
The 7-year-old girl told the Department of Children and Families that she had been sexually assaulted for over a year by her mother’s 40-year-old boyfriend Jose Tolentino, St. Cloud Police said in a news release.
According to the arrest affidavit, the girl was told “not to tell the police officers because she would get in trouble and that she would never see them again.”
The girl told investigators that her mother and other family members knew of the crime, but failed to report the crime to law enforcement.
Tolentino and Laws were arrested and a search warrant was obtained for their home, according to St. Cloud Police.
The Mother, 29-year-old Peaches Laws and boyfriend Jose Tolentino, 40, were investigated after caseworkers with the Department of Children and Families provided our Criminal Investigations Unit with allegations made by Laws’ 7-year-old daughter that not only had Tolentino been sexually assaulting the child for more than a year, but that Laws and other family members were aware of the crimes – but had done nothing to report them to law enforcement.
Tolentino now faces charges of Sexual Battery/Perpetrator 18 years of age or older sexual battery against a victim under 12 years of age, and battery of a child by throwing, tossing, projecting, or expelling certain fluids or materials. He is held on no bond. Laws faces charges of child neglect and hindering communications to law enforcement. The mother, Laws, is being held on a $25,000 bond.
The investigation is still active and ongoing, and more charges are pending.
