By Michele Chadwick
SANTA BARBARA, CA – Less than two months after an attempted kidnapping outside of UC Santa Barbara’s dorm Santa Catalina, Judge Pauline Maxwell of the Santa Barbara County Superior Court sentenced Michael Angelo Auclair to seven years in prison.
Auclair was charged with six counts of indecent exposure with a prior conviction, sexual battery, and attempted kidnapping with the intention of rape or robbery with two enhancements, a violent and serious felony.
During the sentencing hearing, Deputy District Attorney Lauren Franco read a letter written by one of the victims to the court. The letter from “Jane Doe” expressed the fear and trauma inflicted by Auclair.
The letter wrote, “It’s hard to know when you will be safe and when you won’t…What Mr. Auclair did to me was scary. I was so afraid. To know that he had tried to kidnap other girls that night made shivers go down my spine. The fact that that could have been me.”
In exchange for pleading guilty to three counts of indecent exposure and the attempted kidnapping, the remaining charges were waived against Auclair.
Auclair received seven years for the attempted kidnapping and two years each for the indecent exposures, to be served concurrently. Judge Maxwell granted 12 criminal protection orders for the victims that will remain in place for 10 years.
