A rapist disappeared after 2017. Then, cops say, he exposed himself in Broward
For 5 1/2 years, since November 2017, law enforcement agencies didn’t know where convicted rapist James William Santiago Orengo, formerly of Miramar, lived. This ignorance was borne of Santiago Orengo violating Florida’s sex offender registration laws.
Then, a teen girl told police about a man masturbating in a Pembroke Pines’ Barnes & Noble, and a couple told police about someone doing the same in a church.
Now, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, Pembroke Pines police, Davie police and other agencies know that Santiago Orengo, 59, lives in the Broward Main Jail. He is charged with one count of lewd and lascivious exhibition by an adult to a child under 16; possessing someone else’s ID; possessing a similitude identification; giving a false identification to a law enforcement officer; four counts of exposure of sexual organs; and, six counts of failing to register as a sex offender. There are also out-of-county warrant holds for exposure of sexual organs, possession of an unauthorized driver’s license; and failing to register as a sex offender.
Santiago Orengo’s bond has been set at $226,000.
Books, pencils, a church and a nomadic Florida rapist
After being convicted of a 1988 sexual battery with a weapon, Santiago Orengo spent six years and nine months in a Florida Department of Corrections prison. State law required that after his Nov. 17, 1995, release, Santiago Orengo register his name and address four times each year with the state and continue to do so until his death. He also has to report any changes to his name and address within 48 hours.
Santiago Orengo registered in Orange County on Nov. 6, 2017, as “James Santiago,” a transient with the address of Jeff Fuqua Boulevard and Access Road, near Orlando International Airport.
That’s his last registration.
On Saturday, April 29, a couple told Pembroke Pines police they prayed together every Saturday at a local church. That day, however, when they observed their spiritual custom, they caught a man in the prayer room masturbating. An arrest report says surveillance video backed up their claim.
The day before, a 16-year-old girl told Pines cops she had sat down around 2 p.m. at the Barnes & Noble bookstore at 14572 SW Fifth St. to study. A man who had been sitting in the nearby cafe area for several hours, she said, approached her and asked for a pencil. She gave him one, he went back to his table to use it, and returned it with the commentary that it was a good pencil.
About 10 minutes later, 7:45 p.m., she told police, she noticed that the man had turned toward her, masturbating with one hand while holding a boating magazine with the other. As she texted friends, the man asked what she was studying, her age and even her phone number. The girl told police as she answered his questions (Human Geography, 16, “I don’t date”) she kept her eyes locked on his.
She left the area, shaking his offered hand along the way. An arrest report says surveillance cameras caught a side and back view of Santiago Orengo.
Days after his arrest, a 13-year-old girl told police she’d been in the Davie/Cooper City branch of the Broward County Public Library on May 2. She sat down to do schoolwork and a man with a fanny pack sat down next to her. Soon after, she noticed he was exposed and masturbating. While doing so, he talked to her about her pencil. When she got up and headed for library staff, she said he got up and left the library quickly.
The same man was spotted at the library on May 19 by someone who said they saw him masturbating in one of the aisles.
When Pines police caught up to the person they said was on the surveillance videos, Santiago Orengo, and arrested him on May 24, he gave the name Jorge Luis Blazin Irrizary and handed over a driver’s license and Social Security card with that name. A fingerprint scan, an arrest report says, gave up Santiago Orengo.
He said he bought the fake driver’s license and Social Security Card in late 2017 or early 2018.
