Sex offender faces bail of $8 million

Kim Smith

Monday, Oct. 21, 2002 | 9:06 a.m.

A registered sex offender who was acquitted in August on sexual assault charges is now being held on $8 million bail on 19 felony counts of coercion.

According to an indictment unsealed Friday in District Court, Vincent Mark Santana, 44, allegedly coerced 19 Southern California women into having sexually explicit conversations with him over the phone, threatening to kill them if they did not.

All of the conversations took place while Santana was in jail awaiting trial on rape charges.

Santana will be arraigned Thursday by District Judge Valorie Vega.

In asking for the $8 million bail, Deputy District Attorney Lisa Luzaich told Chief District Judge Mark Gibbons that Santana is the "worst of the worse."

Although calls made from the jail are collect calls, many of Santana's alleged victims accepted the charges assuming a loved one had been arrested, Chief Deputy District Attorney Doug Herndon said. In other cases, Santana spoke over the jail recording and pretended the recording was a joke.

All jail phone calls are recorded, but corrections officers didn't realize what Santana was doing until they went back to listen to phone calls during an unrelated investigation, Herndon said.

A Clark County jury acquitted Santana on two sexual assault counts and a first-degree kidnapping charge, for which he could have faced a life sentence in August. Jurors said the alleged victim in the case was less than credible.

Santana still faces trial on a charge of failing to update his address on the sex offender registry in Nevada.