Repeat Colorado sex offender pleads guilty to disgusting act of food tampering, sentenced to prison
A repeat sex offender will now serve an additional three years behind bars for exposing himself to coffee shop workers and contaminating food in Northern Colorado. He was previously was caught recording women in the bathroom in California.
Stephen Masalta pleaded guilty on Friday to two misdemeanors of indecent exposure and one felony county of attempt to sexually assault a child. A Larimer County judge accepted a plea agreement which resulted in Masalta being sentenced to three years in prison. He will be given credit for nearly one year of time served in Larimer County jail.
As first reported by CBS Colorado, Masalta masturbated and ejaculated in baked goods sold at a Fort Collins Safeway grocery store. Those crimes were discovered after police arrested Masalta for exposing himself and masturbating at dozens of coffee shops across Fort Collins, Loveland and other Denver-metro area coffee shops.
This isn't Masalta's first time being charged with sex crimes. He was convicted for filming women and girls in a California church bathroom before moving to Colorado.
Masalta's initial plea agreement, which would have let him be released to community corrections after one year in jail, was declined after he failed to be accepted into community corrections.
Crying, shackled and in a bright orange jumpsuit, Masalta addressed the court on Friday.
"My actions and behaviors are nothing short of selfish, cowardly, short-sighted, evil and perverse," Masalta said. "I inflicted great and lasting harm to those in this community."
Some victims told CBS Colorado they felt Masalta was getting away with an insufficient punishment for the crimes he committed.
When asked why Masalta was allowed to plead and receive only four years of incarceration, District Attorney Gordon McLaughlin said his office was constrained by Colorado law.
"This is a convicted sex offender who was proven to have been recording young girls in bathrooms in California. He comes here and exposes himself to people in coffee shops. He then contaminates food at the place he was working. Should there be fear that this is an escalating situation that will continue to get worse when he gets back out?" CBS Colorado asked.
"That is absolutely a concern," McLaughlin said. "What he engaged in should be a far greater consequence than a class-five felony. But the law simply doesn't contemplate behavior as depraved as Mr. Masalta's was."
McLaughlin said Colorado law does not consider indirect sexual actions, or those without physical contact, as sexual assault. He says the bodily fluids Masalta left in the food that children ate didn't qualify as sexual assault under current Colorado law, because the children were not directly sexually contacted by Masalta.
Also, Colorado law required the court to make some of the sentences run concurrently instead of consecutively. McLaughlin said that meant Masalta could have pleaded to two counts of indecent exposure, or 200, and he still would have served the same amount of time.
"Do you believe that there needs to be a new law added in Colorado to hold people who do these types of crimes more accountable?" CBS Colorado asked.
"Absolutely there does. For the behavior at the coffee shops, we need the ability to issue consecutive sentences to account to all the harm for the different victims. For the felony (attempted sexual assault on a child), the law simply doesn't contemplate something so depraved."
McLaughlin said he has already contacted legislators and will try and use this case as an example to Colorado lawmakers as to why the definition of sexual assault should also include some non-physical contact crimes.
Masalta told the judge he planned to use the next three years in prison to try and correct his addictions and get help.
"I believe I can change. Because if I don't, then, I should remain locked up and the key thrown away," Masalta said.
However, given his prior history as a sex offender and his recent crimes, McLaughlin said he is already worried that Masalta will reoffend.
"I will be concerned when Mr. Masalta is released into the community. The behavior is simply horrifying," McLaughlin said.
