LOS ANGELES
A federal judge sentenced a former cheerleading coach to five years and eight months for sexually
assaulting an intoxicated woman on a cruise ship bound from Long Beach to Ensenada, Mexico during the summer of 2015, according to officials.
U.S. District Judge Dale S. Fischer sentenced Anthony Paul De La Torriente, 30, of Simi Valley, and ordered him to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life. In imposing sentence, Judge Fischer said, “I hope that the fact that a jury of (the victim’s) peers believed her provides some comfort. I believe her too.”
On February 13, a federal jury found De La Torriente guilty of one count of sexual abuse and one count of abusive sexual contact.
In reaching the verdict, the jury found that De La Torriente knew the victim was physically 
unable to decline participation or she had communicated unwillingness to engage in the sexual act.
According to the evidence presented at trial, De La Torriente volunteered to stay alone in the victim’s cabin with the victim, whose severe intoxication from a daytime excursion in Ensenada had worried their colleagues.
Once alone with the victim, while the colleagues were away getting food on the cruise ship, De La Torriente sexually assaulted her. When their colleagues returned, they found the victim’s cabin door had been double-locked from the inside.
When De La Torriente eventually unlocked the door and allowed their colleagues inside, the victim identified De La Torriente as her attacker.
The victim reported the assault to the cruise ship’s medical and security staff.
Swabs taken from the victim’s body matched De La Torriente’s DNA, while swabs taken from inside and outside of his underwear matched the victim’s DNA.
DOJ NOTED:
This matter was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
This case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Cassie D. Palmer of the Public Corruption and Civil Rights Section and Jeffrey M. Chemerinsky of the Violent and Organized Crime Section.