Man gets probation in missing teen case

DERBY — A Texas man who drove to Connecticut to meet a 15-year-old Ansonia girl he had met online and brought her to a Danbury hotel was sentenced this week to two years of probation.
Gabriel Mendoza, who was 19 at the time of his November 2010 arrest, was sentenced in Superior Court. Mendoza risks up to 11 months in prison if he violates probation.
While Ansonia police initially charged Mendoza with risk of injury to a minor, he pleaded guilty to first-degree reckless endangerment, a misdemeanor, court documents show.
At the time of Mendoza’s arrest, Ansonia police said he had begun having an online relationship with the girl, then he drove from Texas to meet her. The girl did not tell her family where she was going, and didn’t leave any note or message. Police said she met with Mendoza willingly, and both denied any sexual activity beyond kissing. Police began an extensive search and reunited her with her family a day after her disappearance.