BY BRADEN CARTWRIGHT
Daily Post Staff Writer
A Mountain View barber who allegedly drugged and sexually assaulted more than 60 men has been captured in Guatemala and extradited back to the United States, police said yesterday.
Franklin Enrique Sarceno Orla, 35, had been on the run since August 2024, when he posted bail for kidnapping, sexual battery, administering an intoxicating agent and knowingly spreading HIV.
Sarceno Orla was a regular at the Monte Carlo Night Club at 228 Castro Street, where police found surveillance video showing that he worked with others to spike drinks.
Sarceno Orla was well-known by nightclub employees because he was accused of drugging another man there in 2018, Officer Melanie Gyorfi said in her police report.
Sarceno Orla’s first alleged victim came forward in July 2024 after waking up bruised and woozy in an apartment at 222 Escuela Ave., where Sarceno Orla also cuts hair, police said.
“The victim was extremely confused and had no memory of how he got to that location,” Gyorfi wrote in her police report.
The man said told police that he met a woman at a bar in San Jose in mid-July and made plans with her to go to Monte Carlo, police said.
At the club, the man noticed the woman and her friends were “acting weird,” police said.
The woman and her friends covered their faces when the man tried to take pictures, and they asked a lot of questions about how much money he made, police said.
The group included Sarceno Orla, who went by “Frank,” police said.
The woman told the man that she wasn’t romantically interested in him and left him alone with her group around 1 a.m., police said.
That’s when Sarceno Orla started offering the man drinks, police said.
Gyorfi reviewed surveillance footage from the club and saw Sarceno Orla hand a white substance to someone else in the group, who poured the substance into a drink at 1:26 a.m.
Sarceno Orla then traded drinks with his alleged victim and encouraged him to take the drink containing the substance, police said.
The victim was seen stumbling out of the club with Sarceno Orla holding him up 20 minutes later, police said.
Kaiser nurses tested the victim, who is heterosexual, and found that he was sexually assaulted, police said.
Another man told police that Sarceno Orla was his barber and that he lost consciousness after having beers together, police said.
Further investigation revealed that Sarceno Orla may have assaulted 20 different men dating back to 2018 or before, Deputy District Attorney Christopher Paynter said in charging documents.
The number of Sarceno Orla’s alleged victims is now above 60, police said yesterday.
Sarceno Orla was arrested on Aug. 28, 2024, and then posted bail for $250,000.
Joanna Smith Bail Bonds secured his bail in exchange for $25,000, court records show.
Mountain View police didn’t announce the arrest at the time.
Sarceno Orla then missed his court date on Oct. 29, 2024.
Joanna Smith Bail Bonds hired fugitive recovery agent Joel Rocha to track Sarceno Orla down, court records show.
But Detective Lauren Riffel told Rocha to stop his own investigation to avoid sabotaging her investigation.
Sarceno Orla was arrested by Guatemalan authorities after leaving his home early Thursday morning in the city of Chiquimula, Mountain View Capt. Scott Nelson said in an email yesterday.
Mountain View police said yesterday that Sarceno Orla’s capture and extradition were made possible by coordination between the U.S. Marshals Service, the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office, the U.S. Department of State’s Diplomatic Security Service, the U.S. Embassy in Guatemala, Guatemalan authorities and the Justice Department’s Office of International Affairs.
District Attorney Jeff Rosen’s spokesman Sean Webby didn’t respond to questions yesterday about when Sarceno Orla will appear in court again.