San Ramon parents receive jail time for leaving boys alone

WALNUT CREEK - A San Ramon man and his new wife who left his two children home alone while they went to Las Vegas over the New Year's weekend pleaded no contest to criminal charges Thursday.

Jacob Calero, 39, and Michelle de la Vega, 32, both received jail sentences in the plea agreement with the District Attorney's Office. Both will apply to serve their time in the sheriff's home detention program, their attorneys said.

"Sometimes you have to step up to the plate," said Calero's attorney, Thomas McKenna, after the Superior Court hearing. "We admitted full responsibility. I'm asking the public to give him a second chance."

Calero and de la Vega were released from custody Thursday afternoon. They had been held on $200,000 bail each since their arrest Jan. 4 at the Oakland airport as they got off a plane from Las Vegas.

During the morning hearing, Calero pleaded no contest to two counts of felony child endangerment and was sentenced to 270 days in jail. De la Vega entered the same plea to one misdemeanor count of being accessory to a felony. She received a 180-day jail sentence.

"It shows (Calero) recognized what they did was wrong," prosecutor Dara Cashman said later. "This was definitely the worst of all bad judgment, but not what we reserve state prison for."

De la Vega, a dentist, accepted the misdemeanor because a felony on her record could have harmed her ability to practice dentistry, said her attorney, G. Wright Morton. He added that her husband was more at fault.

"I think the prosecution recognized a difference in culpability between the two," he said.

Cashman said de la Vega's culpability wasn't diminished because she is a stepmother, but because Calero said she didn't know the children were left alone.

According to Calero's signed affidavit, de la Vega spent the night at her mother's home in Hayward on Dec. 29. He left their San Ramon home early on the morning of Dec. 30 while the boys were still sleeping.

Calero admitted to prosecutors that he often left the house before the boys woke up and came home after they had gone to bed, leaving the 10-year-old boy in charge of his brother, Cashman said.

This "continuous conduct" led to what Cashman called "extremely stiff penalties" compared to other child endangerment cases, especially considering the children were not harmed.

"There really has been a lot of outrage at these parents because it's not like they left the children to go to work," she said. "They left to go to Las Vegas."

San Ramon police, alerted by the boys' maternal grandmother, found Joshua, 10, and 5-year-old Jason about 11 p.m. on New Year's Eve, sleeping alone in their home.

Their mother, Calero's first wife, died of cancer in 2003 at the age of 31. A nanny took care of the children until mid-October, when she quit.

Calero's sister, Patsy Black, told the Times last week that her brother believed the boys' maternal grandmother was coming over to stay with his children. The grandmother, Liberata Holden, had said she never agreed to baby-sit.

Outside the courthouse Thursday, de la Vega's mother, Elvie de la Vega, said her daughter, and the rest of the family, believed the boys' grandmother was baby-sitting.

"As I know, they're doing well," McKenna said Thursday. "I don't think they're going to stay with grandma. He said a juvenile dependency court hearing was scheduled for February.

Because Calero and de la Vega may serve their sentences in home detention -- rather than in jail or prison -- the juvenile dependency court judge would have the option of granting the couple custody of the boys, said Pleasant Hill-based family law specialist Barbara Suskind.

"One of the factors the court will consider is whether the children will be safe there," she said. "It depends on the court's determination that the parents won't make the same mistakes."

Michelle de la Vega and Jacob Calero fight back the tears as they wait to enter
a plea to felony child abuse charges in Walnut Creek Superior Court. The couple
left their two children home alone while they went to Las Vegas for New Year's.

Putting the parents aside for the moment, I'm wondering if grandma set this up. Interesting, the whole family thought she was supposed to be babysitting and coinky dink she's the one who finds them alone and calls the cops. New wife better watch her back.

They are only crying because they got caught. It is not anyone else's responsibility to raise or babysit these children. These parents are selfish and only think about having a good time.

However, I am all for second chances and since no one was harmed, I hope the damage can be repaired. Maybe, after time and close supervision, they can regain their children. (If they really want them).

2 things really stood out to me in this story (and mind you this is coming from a mother of 7).

1) it wasn't mentioned in this article, but first reports of this story stated that the younger boy is autistic. as the mother of three autistic boys, i know that i take extra care ensuring that my boys who are less able to take care of themselves are taken care of by responsible people.

2) why would the dad leave them sleeping alone in the apartment wothout grandma being there? whether the grandmother had agreed to babysit the boys or not, he should have waited until she was there to leave. and did they check by phone to see how things were going? most parents i know call to check on their kidlets when they leave them with anyone, let alone for overnight, wohtout checking in.

i hope that the case is followed, to ensure that this was a one-time incident.

This is local to me (next town over). They left the kids with Grandma over Christmas to go "visiting" (partying). When they asked her to do it for New Years, she said no. They went and put their three dogs in a kennel though. He's a plumber and she runs a cosmetic dental practice.
Earlier this fall, the kids were alone at a local playground when the 5 year old cut his chin. People there had to take him into the ER for stitches.

I'm local, too, and I have been following this case. This is not a one-time event, but is standard procedure for these two lowlifes. Grandma absolutely did the right thing by getting the cops involved, and the kids deserve much better than this sperm-donor and evil step-mother.

Thank you for the rest of the story. Now that I know more, I say they should never get the kids back. They should have to pay the grandma child support along with paying for the kids healthcare, etc....if they miss a payment, etc.., they immediately go to jail.

Thank God these kids have a grandma to look out for them. I will keep these kids in my prayers.

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