This post is to provide factual information. It is to inform the community of a *** offender. It is to help others that may have been victimized by Carlos or others to know they are not alone. Im sure I’ll get some type of push back/retaliation, but I’m interested in keeping the community safe.
An end to a terrible eight year journey my family was forced to take part in has come to an end on September 28th 2021. Eight years ago Carlos Jose Centeno kissed my oldest daughter while we attended a Jiu Jitsu tournament for my middle daughter located at Cal State San Bernardino. After this kiss Carlos proceeded to text message my daughter with sexual innuendos later that day. Fortunately my daughter was wise enough to inform us. Once we read the text messages we contacted OC Sheriffs. At first the responding sheriffs only felt the need to inform Carlos to stay away from my family. After pushing for more results the responding sheriffs contacted their shift supervisor who advised them to contact a detective. Once the detective was contacted she took over the case. With in about two weeks Carlos was arrested at the time what was known as Cinemapolis theaters thinking he was meeting my 15 year old daughter to have ***.
Orange County DA informed San Bernardino DA of what took place at Cal State San bernardino as well as having Carlos in custody. My understanding at the time is OC was pushing the San Bernardino DA to take on the OC caseas well as open a case for the kiss that took place. Fortunately for us San Bernardino did not take on the OC Case. After about 2 years of Carlos and his counsel playing games with the legal system, Carlos agreed to take a plea deal in San Bernardino. Instead of facing charges PC 288(C)(1)-M and PC 647(A)-M, Carlos plead to PC 647(A)-M receiving five years of informal probation, five years as a registered *** offender and a fine. The case number is FSB1405447 under San Bernardino Court House.
At the time my family was excited as Carlos was required to register as a *** offender. We assumed he would show up on Megan’s Law and will not be able to attend any events that kids would be at. Unfortunately this excitement came to an end all too quickly. We were notified that Carlos could attend events but he had to be 40 yards away from my oldest daughter if she attended events that Carlos also attended. This led to my oldest daughter not attending her sister’s jiu jitsu tournaments.
Within a few months of the San Bernardino case closing, OC DA opened their case on Carlos. Once again Carlos and his counsel started to play the legal system. They first delayed the case for about a year and a half. The second step in the delay process was to try and present the court the idea that Carlos has already faced charges for this sexual assault in San Bernardino. This delay lasted a year or so. Then there is the real estate fraud Carlos was facing that also took time away from use. (Case # 14cf4090). This real estate case Carlos took a plea deal. My understanding is he was sentenced to about a year in jail and fines. Instead of going to jail Carlos was still out on bail as his team was attempting to make a deal that some how tied his real estate case and sexual assault case together. Thankfully the OC DA and judge did not allow for this. This took about another year and a half or two to work out. Then Covid hit which slows everything down. Carlos and his team continued to attempt to play the legal system to find a way out of his 3 felony charges for sexual assault on my daughter.
During this time Carlos was out on bail attending wrestling tournaments as his family made the switch from jiu jitsu to wrestling. My middle daughter had also started to participate in wrestling. This led to us running into Carlos at wrestling tournaments. The first tournament I recall running into Carlos was in Corona for SCWAY. It was a high school tournament after state championships. I believe my middle daughter was an eight grader and Carlos’s child was a freshmen. Once I saw Carlos I informed him that I will see him in court. I also informed people in his group about the charges he pleaded to as well as the case in OC. Those people for the most part shrugged it off. Not sure if they didn’t understand the document I showed or what it was. As I would run into Carlos at tournaments I made sure people who were around me and him knew about what had taken place and what Carlos was facing in OC. At this point Carlos and his family became frustrated and started to attempt to retaliate by lying who I was or why we have charges against him. During this time Carlos had a child that attended Yorba Linda High School who then transferred to Esperanza a year later. Once I was aware of this I had reached out to both schools informing them of Carlos and his cases. I did this to warn the schools and attempted to provide some protection for all female students. Both schools seemed to take a lackluster approach to the information I provided as they emailed me back with a “thank you”.
One of the last interactions I had with Carlos was at Rough House Wrestling located at Calvary Yorba Linda. The team was having an open mat on or around August 2020 and my middle daughter’s wrestling team was invited. As I walked up the stairs to the wrestling room I saw Carlos walking in the opposite direction. As he passed me I said good thing you are leaving as we passed each other. Carlos and his wife immediately responded they are not leaving. We exchanged words and I reminded Carlos that I have a court appointed CPO (Criminal Protective Order) which required Carlos to be 100 yards away from me, my wife and my oldest daughter. At this time the head of Rough House approached us as a scene had developed. That person was made aware of Carlos about three months prior as I was aware that Carlos had his child working out with the team. I reminded the head of Rough House that I had sent him the case info for both San Bernardino and OC. That person informed me that Carlos does not have to leave as his kids are both part of the team. At this point I had the option to contact the sherifs or just get my daughter and leave. I chose the latter. As I walked into the wrestling room to get my daughter I made sure to inform attendees that Carlos was a convicted *** offender and that he is face three additional chargers for sexual assault in OC.
I believe the last time that I had ran into Carlos was at a tournament in Scottsdale AZ sometime in December of 2020. Carlos and his family entered a restaurant that myself and my daughter’s team were at. As soon as Carlos and his family saw me they turned around and walked out. Once I was at the tournament I informed the head of security about Carlos and provided both case info. Somehow Carlos entered the tournament. However, I am sure Carlos did not enjoy his time as both him and his wife made sure they were completely covered. They had face masks on with their hoodies pulled over so just their eyes could be seen. They thought I was not aware but I was.
As of May 2021 Carlos has been incarcerated for his third DUI. Knowing this my family was relieved as we knew we would not be running into Carlos. We were also happy. As Carlos has somehow avoided being locked up for any real amount of time up to this point for any of his illegal actions. On September 28th 2021 Carlos plead guilty to the following charges, PC 288.3(a), PC 644(a), PC 288.4(b) Case # 16NF2459. As a result of the plea deal Carlos should have served something like 2 years and 10 months. This sentence should been carried out in a state prison, but with the time served and covid the OC DA thinks he will continue his sentence at a county jail. Carlos will also serve this time congruent with his dui sentence and his Real Estate sentence. So we did not expect Carlos to be jailed for the full time. The plus from this is Carlos under current law is required to register as a *** offered for LIFE. This is huge as this requirement should lead to Carlos being on Megan’s Law.
Unfortunately as of 10-28-21 Carlos shows as being released from custody. This is ridiculous as Carlos served about 5 months. I did reach out to OC SONAR team to confirm Carlos re-registered as a sec offender. They do not have the latest case info from the DOJ as that seems to take a few months. This means Megan’s Law does not have the info either.
Regarding Megan’s Law, you will be surprised to learn what we were told in the 80’s/90’s no longer applie. This is Kathy due to Senate Bills 384 and 145. You can learn more by visiting Megan’s Law website and review “about Megan’s Law” and “about *** offenders”.
The eight year sentence my family has completed has been very hard on our family. Carlos was considered a family friend. We met at Gracie Barra Anaheim Hills. Carlos left that gym and took his kids to A-Team Jiu Jitsu in Garden Grove. We stayed friends. He and his family would attend tournaments that my middle daughter would competing in that his kids did not compete in. He attended my son's first birthday party. We thought he was a friend. Looking back on it Carlos was just looking for a way to get close to my oldest daughter. He had no shame as he did this with his family present.
It is very hard for myself and my wife to trust anyone with our kids now. We question everyone. We have to also let our kids out and be with friends when we are not present. This kills us as we think the worst and hope for the best.
If you question anyone around your kids, go with your gut. Fight the fight and don’t let anyone try to intimidate you. We had some people attempt to intimidate us for Carlos.Push the DA and the officers to investigate.
I can understand I ran into people that have a bad judgment call and maybe that’s what happened with this person but if there was enough evidence for a DA to prosecute it’s because something he did cause them to question it and take it to the next level .