Costa Mesa Babysitter Faces Additional Molestation Charges

NEWPORT BEACH (CNS) - A 30-year-old babysitter service operator from Costa Mesa accused of molesting 12 boys was charged today with additional felony counts involving five more alleged victims.

Matthew Antonio Zakrzewski was charged in May with sexually assaulting two boys in Laguna Beach and Los Angeles, and later that month, prosecutors filed an amended complaint adding charges related to five additional boys.

In August, the defendant was charged with molesting five more victims.

This morning, Zakrzewski pleaded not guilty to the latest complaint and was ordered to return to court Jan. 24 for a pretrial hearing in the Harbor Justice Center in Newport Beach.

Zakrzewski now faces 33 felony counts: 27 felony counts of lewd and lascivious acts with a minor younger than 14; a count of oral copulation of a child younger than 10; a felony count of possession of child pornography; a felony count of using a minor for sex acts; two felony counts of distributing pornography to a minor for the purpose of engaging in sexual activity; and a felony count of an attempted lewd or lascivious act with a minor younger than 14.

Zakrzewski now faces a total of 698 years to life in prison if convicted at trial.

Prosecutors allege the defendant molested the victims -- ranging in age from 2 to 12 years old -- between January 2014 and May of this year.

Zakrzewski called himself ``the original Sitter Buddy'' on his website, in which he also characterized himself as a ``manny'' who provided a variety of babysitting services.

``In the eighth grade, I discovered what a joy it was to work with children and be a positive impact in their lives through my school's `Buddy Program,''' he says on the Sitter Buddy website. ``Now, I am a full-service TrustLine Certified provider of regular and on-demand child care, as well as mentoring services for children.''

In the cases of the first two alleged victims who came forward, the defendant met them in his job as a babysitter, said Kimberly Edds, a spokeswoman for the Orange County District Attorney's Office. The boy from Laguna Beach was allegedly assaulted from February to May and the boy in Los Angeles was allegedly molested in December 2017, she said.

Investigators allege the defendant was found in possession of child pornography that included himself with one of those alleged victims.


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