An illegal immigrant, who was a nearly 19-year-old high school junior, was given less than a year in jail Tuesday for groping nearly a dozen girls in the hallways of his Virginia high school.
Israel Flores Ortiz, from El Salvador, who sneaked into the US illegally in 2024, was charged last month inappropriately touching teen girls at Fairfax High School.
The 18-year-old was later convicted of nine counts of assault and battery in the disturbing case earlier this month, Fox News reported.
He was sentenced to more than a year Tuesday — but will serve just 135 days behind bars based on time he’s already spent in jail and other factors, according to the outlet.
“I hurt them,” the pervy immigrant said in court as he apologized to the victims and his own parents.
Meanwhile, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials have filed a detainer to take Flores Ortiz into custody for deportation proceedings when he completes his local jail sentence.
Fairfax County has sanctuary laws that restrict cooperation with ICE and the sheriff’s office usually does not comply with immigration detainers.
The Fairfax County Sheriff’s Office was tipped off to the sick assaults on March 5 after several teen girls came forward, with Flores Ortiz turning himself in two days later after an arrest warrant was issued.
He was initially charged in nine groping incidents at the school, with four more charges later tacked on as more girls came forward to report similar assaults.
He was charged as an adult but was tried in juvenile court because of his and the victims’ ages — and was found guilty of nine misdemeanor counts, not guilty of three others and had the final charge dismissed.
“I think what is really important is this is not going to go away for my client,” Demetrios Pikrallidas, the attorney for one victim, told WJLA-TV News. “This happened, it’s gotten a lot of attention.
“It’s the vulnerability and the fact that she was touched in a school setting and that shouldn’t of happened,” the lawyer added. “It goes on beyond today. My job is to make sure it never happens again.”