Co-owner of Grover Beach bike shop charged with child sex abuse
An co-owner of a Grover Beach bicycle shop has a warrant out for his arrest after the San Luis Obispo County District Attorney’s Office says he sexually abused a child under 14 years old several times.
Reached by phone for comment on Tuesday morning, Trinity Cyclery co-owner Mitch Allen Gaalswyk said he was unaware that prosecutors filed a single felony charge of continuous sexual abuse of a child against him in San Luis Obispo Superior Court on Monday.
Gaalswyk, 37, of Grover Beach, declined to accept a copy of the complaint from a reporter Tuesday and declined to comment further, saying he wanted to confer with his attorney.
He did not provide the attorney’s name and did not have one listed in court records as of Wednesday.
The criminal complaint filed Monday by deputy district attorney Lisa Muscari alleges Gaalswyk “did unlawfully engage in three and more acts of ‘substantial sexual conduct,’ ... and three and more lewd and Iascivious acts ... with Jane Doe, a child under the age of 14 years, while the defendant resided with, and had recurring access to, the child.”
The complaint states that the abuse occurred on or about Dec. 1, 2018, in San Luis Obispo County.
Should Gaalswyk be convicted of the charge, assistant district attorney Eric Dobroth said the Grover Beach man will face a maximum of 16 years in prison. He would also be required to register for life as a sex offender.
On Monday, Muscari sent a request to the San Luis Obispo Superior Court’s criminal division for an arrest warrant, which court records show was ordered Tuesday.
Neither court or jail records Wednesday indicated that warrant had been served or that Gaalswyk had turned himself in to authorities.
No court date had yet been scheduled for an arraignment.
According to a January 2010 interview with New Times in San Luis Obispo, the store now known as Trinity Cyclery was purchased from owners of a previous bike store in 2005.
The complaint does not allege that any abuse occurred at the Grover Beach shop.
