O.C. man who pretended to be a cop will serve only five more years after sexually assaulting two women

Sean Michael Vasquez, a 42-year-old man from Los Alamitos, pleaded guilty Thursday and was immediately sentenced to only eight years in prison for sexual assaults on two women, including one when he was pretending to be an undercover Anaheim police officer.

Vasquez pleaded guilty to felony charges that included forcible oral copulation and assault with force likely to produce great bodily injury. Several felony counts including kidnapping to commit a sexual assault were dismissed via plea deal along with a misdemeanor count of impersonating a police officer.

Vasquez was also given credit for 992 days (almost three years) in jail and has to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life as per an order by Orange County Superior Court Judge Larry Yellin.

Vasquez pretended to be a a modeling agent in December 2016, which lured one victim, according to testimony at his preliminary hearing.

Vasquez and that victim eventually agreed to a “role play” date May 13, 2017, in Anaheim, where she was to pretend to be a prostitute, according to the prosecutors. When he showed up, he flashed a police badge and told her that he was an undercover cop, which was of course a lie.

Vasquez drove that victim to a self-storage facility parking lot, where he allegedly handcuffed her, put her in the back of the car he was driving, and then locked the vehicle as he took her driver’s license, according to the prosecutors.

Vasquez then went into the backseat with her, locked the vehicle again and demanded she perform a sex act on him as a way to resolve her “legal problem.” When she refused, he drove her to areas known for prostitution in Santa Ana and then directed her to try to rob people who were soliciting prostitution, according to the prosecutors.

When that gambit failed, Vasquez then drove the woman to a “secluded location” in a residential neighborhood, where he forced her to perform a sex act on him before driving her back to her car, according to the prosecutors.

The other victim was someone he met who did booking for an escort service when she was only 18, according to testimony at his preliminary hearing.

Vasquez told the young victim that he had served as a Captain in the U.S. Marine Corps and that he suffered from PTSD after killing numerous people in the Middle East, according to the preliminary hearing testimony.

The two had a consensual romantic relationship but it turned violent in October of 2014 at a cabin in Crestline, in San Bernardino County, according to the preliminary hearing testimony.

This case was prosecuted by Orange County Deputy District Attorney Rick Zimmer, Sexual Assault Unit.