The owner of a Silver Spring bakery pleaded guilty Monday to two counts of second-degree assault in connection to multiple allegations of inappropriate touching of four people during business hours, according to his attorney, Andrew Jezic, and the Montgomery County State’s Attorney’s Office.
Jose Melvin Mendoza, 56, of Silver Spring, who owns Passion Bakery Café at 2281 Bel Pre Road, was arrested by county police in late July. He was initially charged with 13 counts of second-degree assault, two counts of fourth-degree sex offense and one count of fourth-degree sex offense by a person in a position of authority, according to court records.
Jezic told Bethesda Today on Wednesday that Mendoza agreed to a plea deal in the case before Judge Jill Cummins in Montgomery County Circuit Court in Rockville. According to the deal, Mendoza would not face jail time but instead serve three years of supervised probation if he pleaded guilty to the assault charges, Jezic said.
Mendoza also was ordered to serve 80 hours of community service and have no contact with the four victims. Mendoza will be supervised by the state’s Collaborative Offender Management/Enforced Treatment program, also known as COMET, Jezic said.
“He specifically pled guilty to only touching, not involving any sexual offense and not involving any touching of sexual parts of the victims,” Jezic said. “There was nothing in that state’s proffer of facts that involved any kind of private area.”
Jezic said Mendoza is an “old-fashioned guy who came from a different culture [and] who did not appreciate proper boundaries and now he completely appreciates those boundaries.”
“He always maintained his innocence of touching any private part of any employee, any female, and recognized that at times he was not up to date on modern standards in America,” Jezic said. “But he is fully aware of all that now.”
According to Jezic, “dozens” of Mendoza’s female employees came to court, wrote character letters for him and said they had not experienced or witnessed Mendoza do “anything disrespectful or inappropriate” toward women as the case progressed.
Jezic added that Mendoza is continuing to run his bakery business and is “fully committed to making sure that all employees, including himself, are 100% respectful of boundaries in a workplace.”
In addition, according to the state’s attorney’s office, the plea deal included a sentence of five years in prison with all the time suspended.
According to a county police press release from August, the department received reports from multiple people who alleged Mendoza inappropriately touched them at the bakery. Police investigated the reports and an arrest warrant was issued for Mendoza, the release said. The release did not say whether the alleged victims were customers or employees of the bakery.
Mendoza was served with an arrest warrant on July 26, according to digital court records. After his arrest, Mendoza was held without bond. At a bond hearing on Aug. 9, Mendoza posted a $5,000 personal bond at a bond hearing and was released.
