A Long Island foster parent has been accused of sexually abusing at least seven special needs boys placed in his care, prosecutors say.
Cesar Gonzales-Mugaburu, 59, of Ridge, was indicted on 17 counts including child endangerment and sexual misconduct, according to the Suffolk County District Attorney's Office. He pleaded not guilty to the charges Friday.
Prosecutors called his home a "house of horrors" where children were sometimes denied food or contact with the outside world.
"It's disturbing it was allowed to go on for so long," said a representative with the Suffolk County District Attorney's Office.
He is accused of victimizing children as young as 8. He is also accused of sexually abusing a female dog in front of a child last September.
Prosecutors said that the 60-year-old had been running a foster home for 20 years and cared for more than 140 boys. He was paid as much as $18,000 per month to care for the boys.
Some of the foster children were subsequently adopted by Gonzalez-Mugaburu, although District Attorney Thomas Spota said he did not immediately have details on how many.
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He said prosecutors were only able to charge Gonzalez-Mugaburu with abusing seven children in the indictment unsealed Friday, because statute of limitations laws prevent filing charges involving other victims. He said two boys came forward in January and reported the alleged abuse to a caseworker, who contacted police. Detectives then launched a wider investigation.
"We know there were other victims," Spota said.
Authorities first learned of the allegations in January when two boys complained to their case workers.
Spota said that when Gonzalez-Mugaburu was brought in for questioning, he called a 28-year-old adoptee. When that adoptee went to a police station, detectives told him about the allegations and that man began cooperating with investigators.
"That opened the floodgates," the prosecutor said.
An attorney for Gonzales-Mugaburu did not immediately return a request for comment, but supporters who were at his arraignment declined to comment on the case to NBC 4 New York.
He's being held in lieu of a $35,000 bail payment.
Spota said it appears the boys were sheltered from the community, and were not permitted to participate in extracurricular activities at school, nor any athletics programs. He said he children were fed twice a day and were made to eat on the floor.
"He's trying to devise every way he can to keep these kids contained," Spota said.
Authorities the foster children were placed in his care by Brentwood, New York, non-profit St. Christopher Ottilie and the New York City Administration for Children Services. Rose Anello, a spokeswoman for St. Christopher Ottilie, says the organization placed 71 children with Gonzalez-Mugaburu over the past 19 years.
"This investigation should expand well beyond the offender to those who helped to enable this offender to access potential victims," said Laura Ahearn, a victims' rights advocate and executive director of Parents for Megan's Law, which tracks alleged sex offenders.
Spota said the investigation is ongoing, and will include how the alleged abuse went undetected for so long.
Gonzalez-Mugaburu had no prior arrests, prosecutors said; Spota said investigators also are trying to determine how the suspect was permitted to be a foster parent, because he said the man has no employment record.
"He claims to be self-employed," Spota said.
Statements issued by both the ACS and the non-profit said they were cooperating with the ongoing investigation.
