An Orange County Superior Court judge considering a plea deal for two men charged with posing as federal agents to extort immigrants heard from several of the defendants’ alleged victims Thursday.
Laurentiu Baceanu, 21, and Alexandru Vasile, 19, are charged with 15 felony counts of robbery with sentencing enhancements for a hate crime. Prosecutors allege the men, who are from Romania, targeted Latinos for the alleged crime spree in June.
Orange County Superior Court Judge Larry Yellin is considering a five-year plea bargain for the two, according to the Orange County District Attorney’s Office, which objects to the deal. Yellin rescheduled Thursday’s hearing because one of the defendants’ attorneys could not make it. The new hearing is set for Jan. 21.
One man told Yellin through an interpreter that the crime “affected me a lot. … I was afraid it would happen again to me.” He said he has struggled with nightmares and sleeplessness.
A woman, who struggled to hold back tears, said she has high blood pressure and that she is “still recovering from what happened to me.”
She added that the loss of money has left her “behind with my rent,” and that she couldn’t afford to buy anything to eat the day she was robbed.
The daughter of one victim read a letter from her father in which he said he is anxious and that he has turned to alcohol as a balm.
“He fears going to work,” his daughter said. “It’s been a real life-shaking event.”
Another woman said she was robbed of about $1,500, which she needed for her rent and bills and is leery of testifying “because they have my address and do something to me.”
Another man said he was walking his dog when the two flashed a badge and ordered him to turn over his wallet. He said he lost about $2,600 and that one of the suspects threatened to shoot him.
Another man said he planned to use the $904 stolen from him for surgery for a special needs daughter with a broken arm.
“I can’t sleep. I have nightmares,” he said through a translator.
Prosecutors allege the men targeted Latinos because of a fear of being deported. They say the two men have ties to organized crime in Romania.
On June 8, the two were accused of taking $380 in cash and an ID card from a vendor selling food in Tustin, prosecutors said.
On June 15, the two allegedly posed as FBI agents looking for a missing person. According to prosecutors, they demanded ID from a father and son and then questioned whether the father and son’s money was counterfeit. The victims grew suspicious and called police, but the suspects still managed to take some of their money before fleeing, prosecutors said.
That same day, a man riding his bike home from work was robbed by the suspects, who threatened to deport him, prosecutors said.
Another victim reported being robbed in Westminster on June 18 by suspects posing as ICE agents, and that same day a woman said she had about $800 taken from her by suspects claiming to be immigration officials, prosecutors said.
Another robbery of three men was carried out by fake agents at a Home Depot parking lot in Anaheim on June 20, prosecutors said. Another man was robbed of $600 in the same manner a short time later in the city, prosecutors said.