Javier Cervantez Ortiz, 31, was taken into custody by the Glasscock County Sheriff's Office Thursday after he was identified during a traffic stop, according to GCSO officials. Ortiz was charged with aggravated sexual assault of a child  and transferred to the Howard County Jail, where court officials say he is awaiting arraignment.

“The crime allegedly took place in July 2007, or thereabout, with another instance reported in January 2007,” said Howard County District Attorney Hardy Wilkerson. “The first report was made to the police department in Lamesa, who then turned the matter over to the Big Spring Police Department.”

Wilkerson said his office first interviewed the victim in July of this year, and a grand jury delivered an indictment  on Ortiz shortly after in August.

“It sounds like the case has taken a long time to put together, but that's not uncommon in cases like this,” said Wilkerson. “Just getting a case from one police department to another takes time, and the investigation for this type of case is very involved. The Big Spring Police finished their investigation in 2008 and turned the case over to us.”

Wilkerson declined to comment on the location of the assault, saying only incidents had been reported to have taken place both in Howard County and possibly Lamesa.

“Ortiz was known to the victim, who was under the age of 14 years at the time of the crime,” said Wilkerson. “Ortiz is currently in the custody of the Howard County Jail, and I expect they will bring him in for arraignment sometime in the next week. The indictment will be presented to him at that time. I'm not sure if he'll be able to bond out or not, but once he's arraigned will begin the process that will eventually bring the case to trial if no plea agreement is reached.”

Contact Staff Writer Thomas Jenkins at 263-7331 ext. 232 or by e-mail at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it