Three years after a shooting sparked by alleged child abuse, the Benders, victims of both the assailant and the legal system's shortcomings, continue to grapple with the fallout.
There is no dispute that on a late-winter afternoon nearly three years ago, Patty and Paul Bender, along with Patty’s son Harry Goularte Jr., were driving through Morgan Hill while being pursued by former mixed-martial arts and UFC champion Cain Velasquez . Velasquez had already once shot at their pickup truck as the Benders picked up Goularte from his residence.
When the miles-long chase reached its end on Bailey Avenue, the three were bracing themselves as Velasquez rammed them with his own truck, then fired a volley of gunshots. By all accounts, the bullets were meant for Goularte, but Paul Bender was the one who was hit and wounded. Velasquez was subsequently arrested and charged with attempted murder, assault with a firearm, and several other assault and gun-related charges in the Feb. 28, 2022, attack. A planned January sentencing hearing was pushed to March. But that pending legal conclusion has offered no relief to the Benders, owing to their unique intersection between criminal cases. Goularte is facing charges stemming from an alleged sexual abuse incident that occurred at the now-shuttered San Martin day care his mother ran, which is the presumed motive for the shooting. No trial date has been set in that case. They lament that the attention devoted to Velasquez and his celebrity has skewed the public perception of them as victims. Instead of being vindicated, the Benders continue to deal with the fallout, including threats and harassment. Cain Velasquez, right, appears for his arraignment with attorney Edward Sousa, who appeared with him, at the Santa Clara County Hall of Justice on Monday, Nov. 21, 2022, in San Jose, Calif. Velasquez, the former UFC champion based out of San Jose, was charged with shooting at a man accused of molesting his child. (Dai Sugano/Bay Area News Group) At one point early on, someone tried to firebomb the Benders’ home — which also housed the thriving day care business that Patty Bender once operated — by throwing a Molotov cocktail onto the property. It failed to fully ignite. Effectively run out of town and scandalized, Patty Bender had to shut down a business that she ran for nearly four decades. “I’ve done this job for over 40 years. I’ve never had to advertise. I’ve never had an issue or an allegation in all of those over 40 years,” Patty Bender said in an interview. “I’ve been involved in that community my whole life, since I had children.” With Velasquez’s case heading toward finality, the Benders are shifting focus to their contention that the allegations against Goularte were under-investigated, a lapse that in their view set off the fateful sequence of events. They are steadfast in proclaiming Goularte’s innocence, which they say is backed by a credible alibi and even video surveillance showing that he wasn’t at the day care when the sexual abuse of Velasquez’s son allegedly occurred. “Harry told them where he was. We had surveillance footage showing he was not there, and they said they would come back to get it,” Patty Bender said. “They never came back to get it, and then they never checked his alibi.” “Our son is 100% innocent, and if our court system would allow us the opportunity to prove it, we could prove it,” she added. Goularte’s attorney Steve Defillipis has argued repeatedly that the case improbably hinges on the testimony of a then-4-year-old child whose account was inconsistent. A trial for Goularte remains pending. The Benders also remain frustrated with how they were kept abreast of the prosecution against Velasquez. They assert that over more than two years of court hearings, they never got ample chance to challenge decisions including Velasquez’s bail and his requests to travel during his supervised release. It culminated with the plea agreement reached in August between prosecutors and Velasquez when they wanted all of the facts of the shooting to come out through a trial. “We’re the victims here,” Paul Bender said. “And we’re being victimized again, not only by Cain, but by our own system.” The sheriff’s office, which has changed administrations since the allegations against Goularte were first investigated, deferred comment to prosecutors. “Unfortunately, because this is an active case set to go to trial, we are unable to make any specific comments or provide insight into the investigation,” the agency said in a statement. In a brief statement, the district attorney’s office defended its treatment of the Benders and while doing so recognized their unique circumstances. “Respectfully, we are restricted in how we can respond because this couple is at the center of two pending criminal matters,” the statement reads. “Our goal … is to treat victims of crime with empathy and to provide them with clear, accurate information and strong advocacy. This was consistently and professionally done in this matter and will continue to be.” The Benders say they can’t fully measure how much the conflict has upended their lives, but the closure of Patty’s Childcare leaves a void after its namesake shut down the business in the months after the shooting
Cain Velasquez Shooting Child Abuse Allegations Victims Legal System Justice Daycare Trial Plea Agreement
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