Finally, it's encouraging for California sexual abuse lawyers to see the US extradition process working properly - albeit slowly - to deliver justice to victims of child sexual abuse in California.  A 66-year-old man has been extradited from the Philippines to California to face charges of child sex abuse.  The charges date back to the early 1980’s, when the alleged sexual abuse occurred.  The man, Richard Wright La Guardia, was working as a doctor in the Philippines when FBI detectives finally caught up with him.  He was detained on March 23, and was just deported.  He reached California last week.

In 1982, Riverside County prosecutors charged LaGuardia with three counts of sexual abuse on a child.  The two girls that he was accused of sexually assaulting were his own minor stepdaughters. In 1983, he was scheduled to appear in court, but failed to do so.  A bench warrant was issued for his arrest.  In 1996, the FBI and the US Attorney's office found out that LaGuardia had fled the country to the Philippines.  Soon, a federal warrant was issued for his arrest.  Over the next few years, American investigators worked diligently with their Philippines counterparts, following leads on LaGuardia.  They ultimately found LaGuardia working as a doctor in the Philippines.  He was arrested on March 2 at Puerto Princess at Palawan Island.  He now faces new charges of forced oral sex and suspicion of sodomy with a child under 14.  

There is one main question that sexual abuse attorneys need to ask here.  LaGuardia was found living in the Philippines in 1996, when the federal warrant was issued.  Why did it take approximately 14 years for a combination of efforts by the Philippines authorities and US federal law enforcement agencies to extradite this man to the United States?