Former Clear Lake man sentenced to 14 years in prison on child sexual abuse charges

CLEAR LAKE — It’s 14 years in prison for a former Clear Lake man who pleaded guilty to child sexual abuse charges.

65-year-old Saleem Abujobarah was booked into the Cerro Gordo County Jail on March 17th after being arrested in Cook County Illinois for four counts of third-degree sexual abuse and two counts of indecent contact with a child. According to criminal complaints filed in August 2018, Abujobarah committed numerous sexual crimes against a child under the age of 14 during the 2018 calendar year while he was living in Clear Lake. 

Abujobarah originally pleaded not guilty to the charges, but as part of a plea agreement, he pleaded guilty to two of the four third-degree sexual abuse counts as well as pleaded guilty to the two indecent contact charges. The plea deal said prosecutors would recommend 10 year prison sentences on the sexual abuse charges that will run at the same time, but two year sentences for each of the indecent contact charges will run consecutively after the sexual abuse counts, for a total of 14 years in prison.

District Judge Gregg Rosenblatt agreed with that recommendation during a sentencing hearing earlier this week.