An FBI fugitive task force in Los Angeles, following a foot pursuit and brief struggle, arrested a former Northern California elementary school teacher wanted for alleged sexual crimes against children in 2001.
Frank Joseph Montenegro, 52, who was a resident in a community home in the Boyle Heights section of Los Angeles, was arrested Wednesday and is currently in Los Angeles awaiting transfer to the custody of officials in Alameda County, said Laura Eimiller of the FBI.
Some members of the task force suffered superficial injuries during the struggle, Eimiller said.
Montenegro was charged by the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office on July 25, 2001 with multiple counts of sodomy of a child under 14 years of age against the victim’s will, oral copulation, and the continued sexual abuse of a minor, she said.
The charges were the result of an investigation conducted by the Fremont Police Department. Montenegro had been working as an elementary school teacher at the time of the investigation, she said.
“After investigators had established that Montenegro fled across the southern United States border to Mexico, the FBI was asked to assist in finding him,” she said Wednesday morning. “Montenegro had remained a fugitive until today when the FBI’s Fugitive Task Force in Los Angeles followed up a tip received at the Los Angeles Police Department indicating that the federal fugitive had been residing locally for several years.”
— City News Service