SAN DIEGO (KGTV) - A 46-year-old Oak Park man is being held without bail in San Diego's Central Jail after San Diego Police say he kidnapped a toddler and molested her.
Francisco "Freddy" Diaz faces 8 felony counts, including burglary, kidnapping sexual assault and lewd and lascivious acts on a child under the age of 14.
His alleged victim is just three years old.
The girl's father, Silvester Soltero told 10News he was working on his car when, unbeknownst to him, the "strange" man who lived next door broke into a bedroom window, grabbing his sleeping daughter.
Soltero said Diaz' mother brought his daughter home, but she didn't have her pants.
“I grabbed my daughter and I was like, baby what happened?" Soltero said his daughter proceeded to tell him the man touched her private parts. When the father asked who the man was. Soltero said his daughter pointed out Diaz.
"I lost it," said Soltero.
When the father approached Diaz he became hostile. “He started screaming if you snitch on me I'll kill you," recalled Soltero.
The men fought. Soltero showed a bruise where he said Diaz tried to poke him in the eye with a fork.
Eventually, Diaz ran off, but San Diego Police caught him a short distance away.
That's when Soltero said things got worse. He soon learned his neighbor was a registered sex offender.
“They should have told me, they should have told me I was living next to a pedophile, If I had known I wouldn’t have brought my daughter around here, there’s no way in hell," he said.
Court records show Diaz was convicted in 2006 for molesting three girls on the playground adjacent to Oak Park Elementary School, which is right across from his mother's house. He was sentenced to eight years in prison, in part because he already had a criminal history. In 2000, Diaz was convicted of making a terrorist threat and assault with a deadly weapon.
Court records show Diaz is schizophrenic and abuses drugs, specifically methamphetamines. A psychologist is quoted in court documents saying, "If he can remain in treatment, and avoid drug and alcohol abuse, he should not pose a danger to the community's children."
12 years later, Diaz finds himself back under the legal microscope.
Soltero wants to know why a registered sex offender could live right across from a school full of potential victims, and right next door to the home where Soltero's daughter and three other children live.
San Diego Police say Diaz was in full compliance with the terms of Megan's Law. He is required to check in with police every year and he does so, said Lt. Jason Weeden. Because Diaz' child molestation convictions were misdemeanors, he doesn't have to steer clear of schools and playgrounds.
Silvester Soltero says if that's true, the law should be changed. “If you’re a sex offender you shouldn’t be by a school, period," he said.
Diaz will be arraigned before a judge Wednesday. Soltero says he will be there to make sure justice is done.
