Mountain View hairdresser Franklin Enrique Sarceño Orla fled after arrest for assaulting customers, police say

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. (KGO) — Police are searching for a South Bay hairdresser accused of sexually assaulting two men, allegedly kidnapping one of his own clients.

Franklin Enrique Sarceño Orla, 34, skipped court after posting bail. If convicted, he faces life in prison.

Orla’s Mountain View apartment sits empty after police say he fled after being arrested for assault. Researchers fear that there will be more victims.

“We have reason to believe there are at least 20, if not more,” said Christopher Paynter, deputy district attorney for the Santa Clara Co. Sexual Assault Unit. “It appears that these various victims were unconscious, intoxicated, or a combination of both, based on the video evidence obtained by law enforcement to date.”

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Investigators say two victims describe losing consciousness after sharing a drink with Sarceño Orla this year.

“Two ways we seem to see a pattern are nightlife, where it’s in a club or a bar, or some setting like that, where the victims meet and then something happens,” Paynter said. ‘Or he would know them because of his profession as a hairdresser.’

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Court documents show that one of the victims was unlawfully detained while Sarceño Orla sodomized him.

The other, a customer of Sarceño Orla’s home hairdresser, was allegedly kidnapped and taken away after being intoxicated by an anesthetic.

“Through the investigation, video evidence was obtained showing several assaults, and that is still information we are processing and collecting,” Paynter said.

Sarceño Orla was first arrested in August and posted $250,000 bail on assault charges before the second charges surfaced.

He missed his court hearing in October and investigators believe he is no longer in the area.

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There are indications that the attacks may date back to 2018 and the district attorney’s office is asking that other victims come forward.

“We will place a very high priority on their anonymity and protecting their names as much as possible during this process,” Paynter said. “We would encourage them, if they believe they are a potential victim of the defendant, to get tested for sexually transmitted diseases.”

If you have any information, please contact the Mountain View Police Department at (650) 903-6618 or email Detective Lauren Riffel at [email protected] or Detective Guillermo de Lira at guillermo.delira@ mountainview.gov.

Or contact the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office at (408) 792-1013 or email [email protected]